Pharma Marketletter articles from July 2003

Pharma Marketletter archives from July 2003

AESGP welcomes EU Response to G10.
July 14, 2003... European Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen has told the European Parliament that, as part of its Response to the G10 Medicines initiative (Marketletter July 7), the European Commission will consider ways of developing a competitive...

MEPs, UN chief view WTO Rx deadlock.
July 14, 2003... A Resolution adopted by Members of the European Parliament on the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, September 10-14, stresses that "a solution to the access to medicines issue which does not limit WTO members to...

Italy: Rx prices "70.4% higher due to patents".
July 14, 2003... Older drugs in Italy cost too much and newer ones too little, according to Francesco Ciranna, president of the national generic drugmakers association, Federgenerici. The association has compared the prices of the 10 oldest...

Big pharma has "long way to go" to avoid risks posed by developing world.
July 14, 2003... The global pharmaceutical industry is facing up to a range of long-term issues from developing nations that are placing significant downward pressure on profit margins and presenting large potential risks to current business models, according...

Nichiiko Pharma foresees 130% pretax profits rise.
July 14, 2003... Japan's Nichiiko Pharmaceutical is likely to report a consolidated pretax profit of about 1 billion yen ($8.4 million) for the six-month term ended May 31, 2003, up 130% from the same period the previous year, reports the Nihon Keizai Shimbun....

OrbiMed investos $15M in DOV Pharma.
July 14, 2003... DOV Pharmaceutical of New Jersey, USA, has announced that it has closed a $15 million private placement of common stock and warrants to a group of funds managed by OrbiMed Advisors. The company sold OrbiMed 1,428,571 shares of common stock...

Barr Labs dedicates adenovirus facility.
July 14, 2003... USA-based Barr Laboratories has dedicated its new adenovirus vaccine virus types 4 and 7 manufacturing and packaging facility, a 20,000-square foot building designed specifically to produce vaccines for recruits to the US Armed Forces. The...

IVAX UK plant gets $6M grant.
July 14, 2003... IVAX Corp's UK subsidiary, IVAX Pharmaceuticals UK, has received a $6 million grant to complete the construction of a $41 million manufacturing plant at Preston Brook in Cheshire. The North West Development Agency's Cheshire Development Fund...

Gilead wins US FDA approval for its once-daily HIV therapy Emtriva.
July 14, 2003... The US Food and Drug Administration has granted marketing authorization to Gilead Sciences' Emtriva (emtricitabine). The product is a 200mg one-capsule, once-daily nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, indicated for use in combination...

Biovail files for new use of Cardizem LA.
July 14, 2003... Canada's Biovail has revealed that it has filed a supplemental New Drug Application for Cardizem LA (diltiazem) with the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of angina. Cardizem LA, a once-daily, oral graded-release version of...

Four new patents issued for MBP8298.
July 14, 2003... Canada's BioMS Medical has announced that the University of Alberta has received additional patents in the European Union, Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine, for the company's MBP8298, a synthetic peptide with utility in the treatment of multiple...

New evidence-bases guidelines for antiplatelet therapy in PAD.
July 14, 2003... What are claimed to be the first-ever guidelines for antiplatelet therapy in peripheral arterial disease have been published in the European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery (vol 26, no 1) by Gerry Stansby, professor of vascular...

US FDA requests more data on Organon's Follistim-AQ.
July 14, 2003... Dutch firm Akzo Nobel's human pharmaceutical business unit Organon says that the US Food and Drug Administration has requested additional data for its fertility product Follistim-AQ (follitropin beta) Cartridge. The agency has informed Organon...

Indian drugmakers enlist help of marketing company.
July 14, 2003... Three Indian drugmakers, Shasun Chemicals, Suven Pharmaceuticals and Innovasynth Technologies, have jointly agreed to enlist the aid of the marketing company Austin Chemical to promote their services in drug development. The alliance will focus...

AstraZeneca skating on thick ice.
July 14, 2003... AstraZeneca has given its name to a major ice-rink development in Ujpest on the edge of the Hungarian capital Budapest because "it supports a healthy lifestyle." Construction of the AstraZeneca rink has just been completed and company sources...

DSM takes stake in Chiraliz for early-stage drug development.
July 14, 2003... Netherlands-based DSM has taken a minority, 25% interest in Chiralix of Nijmegen, which it says represents a further extension of its range of technologies and services for the early development stages of new drugs. Earlier this year, DSM moved...

JMA exec slams Japan's drug deregulation moves.
July 14, 2003... Responding to a question by the newsletter Pharma Japan, Japan Medical Association executive Hideya Sakurai has criticized the country's Prime Minister's decision, as part of his 2003 Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and...

Zeltia share price under investigation.
July 14, 2003... The Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, the body in charge of regulating shares on the Spanish stock exchange, says that it has launched an investigation into the recent share price collapse suffered by the country's leading drugmaker...

Ribopharma in all share merger with Alnylam.
July 14, 2003... Kulmbach, Germany-headquartered Ribopharma AG has merged with the USA's Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in a stock-for-stock deal that creates a leading biotechnology concern in the field of gene-silencing, also known as RNAi-interference. The deal,...

Ipsen in product deal with Japan's Teijin.
July 14, 2003... France-based drugmaker Ipsen says that it has entered into a cross-licensing deal with Japan's Teijin which will see the latter market four of its drugs in Japan, while Ipsen will commercialize a Teijin gout product in Europe. Financial terms...

Provalis boosted by diagnostic performance.
July 14, 2003... UK-based drugs and diagnostics maker Provalis has reported a leap in sales for the fiscal year ended June 2003, buoyed by a more than three-fold increase in turnover of the firm's diabetes monitoring product Glycosal. Overall sales vaulted 49%...

China: "huge potential for Indian pharma".
July 14, 2003... China's pharmaceutical market is set to treble in size by 2010, reaching a value of more than $24 billion by that date, and with prescription drug sales increasing from $5.8 billion in 2000 to reach an estimated $19 billion by 2010, according...

S African private generics market "set to boom".
July 14, 2003... South Africa's newly-introduced Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act could almost double the size of the country's private-sector generic drug market, says Francois Hoffman, the marketing manager of South African generics...

India: Phase III trials for biotech imports.
July 14, 2003... The Indian government is to make Phase III clinical trials mandatory for imported recombinant DNA biotechnology drugs, in a reversal of earlier policy, under which such products already sold in the exporting country could be introduced into...

Ghana buys AIDS drugs, plans local production.
July 14, 2003... Ghana's Ministry of Health has now ordered, through the Global Fund, sufficient quantities of some 11 antiretroviral drugs to treat 2,000 HIV/AIDS patients for two years. However, it is also planning to start producing the drugs...

Hawaii plan for free drugs to the needy.
July 14, 2003... The US state of Hawaii has introduced a new program to help some 20,000 chronically-ill state residents who are on low incomes or without prescription drug cover gain access to free medicines donated by 120 drugmakers. Hawaii Prescription Care...

New York lawsuits over "inflated" drug pricing "could close cancer clinics".
July 14, 2003... While recent law suits brought by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer claim that pharmaceutical companies' pricing practises have led to US consumers and government health plans overpaying grossly for drugs, the real targets of these...

Amgen takes option for Genmab's HuMax.
July 14, 2003... Danish biotechnology firm Genmab A/S says that US firm Amgen has exercised its commercialization option for both the HuMax-IL15 antibody and the IL15 receptor program, which is being developed for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. In...

H3 Pharma licenses Debiopharm's Sanvar.
July 14, 2003... Canada-based oncology and endocrinology specialist H3 Pharma has licensed worldwide R&D and commercialization rights to Sanvar (vapreotide) from Switzerland's Debiopharm SA. The companies say that Sanvar immediate-release is the only...

Innogenetics' hep C vaccine Ph IIa results.
July 14, 2003... Belgium's Innogenetics has presented additional positive results supporting the previously-published histological findings of its E1-based therapeutic candidate vaccine for hepatitis C, at the 38th annual meeting of the European Association for...

Ranbaxy revises target on US sales.
July 14, 2003... Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy says that, following the success of its generic version of the antibiotic Augmentin (amoxicillin and clavulanate potassium) in the important US market, it has revised its sales targets for the coming fiscal year to $55...

Pfizer India to move for brands.
July 14, 2003... The Indian unit of the world's number one drugmaker, Pfizer India, is reportedly moving into brand acquisitions and co-marketing alliances in areas where its product portfolio is either weak or can be optimized by additional brands. To focus on...

Share boost for Mayne as forecasts are met.
July 14, 2003... Australian health care company Mayne Group has benefited from increased investor confidence in recent weeks on the back of news that its full-year underlying earnings, excluding consumer products, are set to hit targets. The company said...

Elan raises $65M through share sale.
July 14, 2003... Continuing with its aggressive disposal of assets ahead of maturing debt obligations, Ireland-based Elan says that it has sold its remaining stake in US drugmaker Ligand for net cash proceeds of $65.1 million to a number of unnamed...

Merck KGaA files MAAs for Erbitux.
July 14, 2003... Germany-based Merck KGaA has revealed that it has filed Marketing Authorization Applications with the European Medicines Evaluation Agency and the Swiss regulatory authorities for Erbitux (cetuximab). The company is seeking approval for use of...

New use for Pfizer's Genotropin in EU.
July 14, 2003... The European Medicines Evaluation Agency has approved the use of Pfizer's Genotropin (somatropin) for the treatment of growth disturbance in short children born small for gestational age (SGA) and who failed to show catch-up growth by four...

Stroke patients benefit early use of Atacand.
July 14, 2003... Early intervention with AstraZeneca's angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist, Atacand (candesartan cilexetil), improves outcome for patients with acute ischemic stroke, according to data published in Stroke. The findings were from the...

Connetics files for approval of Extina.
July 14, 2003... USA-based Connetics has announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application for use of its Extina (ketoconazole) in the treatment of seborrheic dermatitis. The product comprises 2% ketoconazole formulated using the company's proprietary...

Astex and AstraZeneca extend deal.
July 14, 2003... The UK's Astex Technology has extended an existing agreement with AstraZeneca by three years. The collaboration is in the area of cytochrome P450s, and Astex will continue to apply its high-throughput X-ray crystallography technology to derive...

UK warning over EU clinical trials directive.
July 14, 2003... The number of UK cancer patients taking part in clinical trials has risen over 70% in recent years, but this will be threatened if "bureaucratic new regulations" take effect, warns Peter Selby, director of Cancer Research UK's Clinical Centre...

63% in the UK "would use own-DNA drugs".
July 14, 2003... 63% out of a total of 1,050 people polled across the UK by US biotechnology corporation Applera said that they would be willing to use medicines tailored to their own DNA, if they became available.

Romanian govt agency sued over AIDS drugs.
July 14, 2003... Romania's government insurance agency is being sued by the parents of child HIV/AIDS victims because the free drugs to which all Romanian children aged under 18 are legally entitled to are no longer being supplied by the agency's pharmacies,...

EU/Japan panel: more work needed on GMP.
July 14, 2003... The second meeting of the sub-committee set up under the European Union/Japan Joint Committee of the Agreement on Mutual Recognition has held a video conference to discuss the progress of joint activities and coordination during the preparatory...

Czech Republic 1st-qtr pharma market data.
July 14, 2003... Czech Republic drug purchases reached 92.5 million packs worth 13.2 billion korune ($480 million) in first-quarter 2003, say State Institute for Drug Control figures reported by the CTK news agency's Business News. This is an annual rise of 10...

Bush urges Congress accord on Rx benefit.
July 14, 2003... US President George W Bush has been using fund-raising initiatives related to his re-election campaign to urge the House and Senate to present him with a single reconciled Medicare prescription drug benefit bill for signing before legislators...

New US Rx plan offers cost-sharing options.
July 14, 2003... RxAllowance is a new US prescription drug insurance plan which offers enrollees, for the first time, cost-sharing options through a pharmacy allowance design. The plan, to be offered publicly next year by health benefits company Humana,...

Michigan Rx plan: "over $70M saved since 1999".
July 14, 2003... Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield's Affinity Rx program, which provides prescription drug discounts to state residents without drug coverage but who do have an individual non-group policy with the insurer, is now being offered to all age groups....

57% say US Rx prices are "unreasonably high".
July 14, 2003... US prescription drug prices are unreasonably high, in the view of 57% of US consumers surveyed in April which, although still a majority, is slightly down compared with the 62% who expressed this opinion in March 2002, Harris Interactive has...

Schering-Plough lowers forecasts and warns that 2nd half could be even worse.
July 14, 2003... US drug major Schering-Plough has warned that its second-quarter earnings will likely fall well short of estimates, as sales of its former blockbuster allergy drug Claritin (loratadine) continue to tank and the hepatitis C market becomes...

Chiron/Roche settle on pricing issues.
July 14, 2003... USA-based Chiron says that the European Commission has accepted a joint settlement proposal made by the firm and its European licensee Roche with regards to antitrust complaints from blood banks over the pricing of its hepatitis and HIV tests....

Roche's Pegasys shows promise as a therapy for hepatitis B virus infections.
July 14, 2003... Data from the first study evaluating the use of Roche's Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) as a treatment for hepatitis B virus infections have demonstrated that the product was superior to conventional interferon therapy. The findings were...

FDA rejects Cellegy's testosterone gel.
July 14, 2003... The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a non-approvable letter to USA-based Cellegy Pharmaceuticals for its testosterone replacement therapy Fortigel 2%. The FDA stated that: - there was insufficient data to show that the high...

Japanese drugmakers pushing generic Mevalotin launches.
July 14, 2003... Mid-size Japanese pharmaceutical manufacturers are accelerating the launches of generic versions of Mevalotin (pravastatin), the cholesterol-lowerer developed by Sankyo and the patent on which expired last October. Generics deemed not to...

China's Baiyunshan allies with DSM-Gist on antibiotics.
July 14, 2003... China's Guangzhou Baiyunshan General Pharma has signed an agreement with Gist, a division of Dutch chemicals and pharmaceuticals group DSM, for extensive cooperation on antibiotics, reports Chinese Medical news. Under the terms of the...

Conferences and meetings in September.
July 14, 2003... - The fourth annual Pharmaceutical Pricing Forum, organized by Access Events, will be held in London, UK, September 3-4, on the theme optimizing pricing strategies for maximum profit. Another Access meeting in London is the Multi-Channel Pharma...

Hungarian pharma, govt clash over prices.
July 14, 2003... While July 1 saw an average 9.7% rise in the prices of 212 unsubsidized medicines in Hungary, the planned average 3.7% increase in the costs of some 3,500 subsidized drugs was not implemented on that date, despite these rises having been...

Russian Rx output up, but biotech is down.
July 14, 2003... Russian pharmaceutical production in the first five months of 2003 rose 17% over the like period of 2002, but biotechnology sector output fell 27.4%, say State Statistics Committee data reported by the Interfax news agency. Overall industrial...

Eon Labs' stock repurchase program.
July 14, 2003... US generics drugmaker Eon Labs says its board has approved the repurchase of up to 300,000 shares of its common stock over the next 12 months. Eon has adopted a plan to repurchase 125,000 shares under Rule 10b 5-1 of the Securities and Exchange...

Statins' new promise featured in US press.
July 14, 2003... The July 14 issue of Newsweek magazine features a cover story on statin drugs and how they now show promise against Alzheimer's disease and in other indications. The potential benefits of statin drug use in the treatment or prevention of...

Protein Design prices $250M offering.
July 14, 2003... California, USA-based Protein Design Labs has agreed to place privately $250 million of convertible subordinated notes due 2023. The notes will be convertible at the option of the holder into PDL's common stock at a conversion price of...

Roche Diagnostics opens new HQ in Spain.
July 14, 2003... Roche Diagnostics has opened its new Spanish headquarters in Sant Cugat del Vallies, which will employ some 300 professionals and represents an investment of 33 million euros ($37.4 million). Now in its 70th year in Spain, Roche Diagnostics...

Tokyo pharma stocks - week to July 7.
July 14, 2003... Tokyo saw a powerful rally in the week to July 7, fuelled by the improved market sentiment, active participation by foreign and individual investors and the strength of New York markets. Trading volume was heavy, with robust appreciation in the...

US House votes to keep FEHBP drug benefits.
July 14, 2003... The US House of Representatives has voted in favor of retired federal staff, including Members of Congress, retaining their prescription drug benefits under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program after the planned Medicare prescription...

US Senate Democrats' Rx benefit conditions.
July 14, 2003... As US House and Senate negotiators begin work on reconciling the two houses' proposals for a Medicare prescription drug benefit, a group of 37 Senate Democrats has written to President George W Bush, telling him of the features which must be...

A&D Pharma to expand through investment.
July 14, 2003... A&D Pharma, which takes in the large Romanian pharmacy chain Sensiblu and the medical distribution brand Mediplus, is planning an investment program intended to modernize and expand the firm's core businesses. Controlled by Sogrango of the...

Kyowa Hakko improves debt position.
July 14, 2003... Japanese drugmaker Kyowa Hakko took steps to improve its debt position during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, as the company sold its alcohol operations to Asahi Breweries and used the funds from the disposal to address its...

China's no 1 to acquire Japan's Toa Seiyaku.
July 14, 2003... China's largest drugmaker, Sanjiu Enterprise, is set to acquire a majority stake in the Japanese business Toa Seiyaku and turn the latter into a subsidiary, with the intention of producing and selling Sanjiu drugs in Japan, reports the Nihon...

Czech authorities OK Leciva takeover.
July 14, 2003... The Czech Republic's anti-monopoly office (UOHS) has given the go-ahead for the country's largest drugmaker, Leciva, to complete its takeover of Slovakfarma, reports the Interfax news agency. The transaction remains subject to approval from the...

Profits down at Ajanta Pharma in 4th qtr.
July 14, 2003... India's Ajanta Pharma, a therapeutics solutions company focused on pain management and cardiovascular disorders, has reported a 21% decline in net profits to 7.8 million rupees ($168,400) for the quarter ended March 31, 2003, over the like,...

Full-year profits leap at Ind-Swift Labs.
July 14, 2003... India's Ind-Swift Labs has reported a leap of 25% in net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, as the company was boosted by an improved performance in exports. For the 12-month period, Ind-Swift posted a net profit of 53.2 million...

VaxGen continues to finance Thai HIV trial.
July 14, 2003... USA-based biopharmaceutical concern VaxGen has refuted claims that it is preparing to pull out of Thailand before the final analysis of a 2,500-volunteer Phase III clinical trial for its HIV/AIDS vaccine AidsVax (rpg120) is complete. The...

XOMA closes license deal with Baxter.
July 14, 2003... California, USA-headquartered XOMA has brought to an end its licensing agreement with US health care major Baxter relating to the anti-infective Neuprex (recombinant bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein). Consequently, XOMA will receive...

Majors rush to roll out new drugs in Japan.
July 14, 2003... Large European drugmakers are scaling up their activities in Japan, which is likely to result in a flurry of product roll-outs over the next few years, particularly of lifestyle drugs and treatments for the central nervous system, claims a...

Indian warning over TV ads for OTCs.
July 14, 2003... The major Indian nationwide television company Doordarshan (DD) has said it will not broadcast advertisements for over-the-counter medicines unless they have been cleared by the Drug Controller General of India. A spokesman for DD said the...

Global blockbuster antibiotics' days are numbered, says Datamonitor report.
July 14, 2003... The global antibacterial market is becoming increasingly unattractive to pharmaceutical majors, and firms will be able to maintain short-term market share and presence in this sector through lifecycle management and/or product refinement...

UPDATE - Zeltia share price under investigation.
July 14, 2003... The Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, the body in charge of regulating shares on the Spanish stock exchange, says that it has launched an investigation into the recent share price collapse suffered by the country's leading drugmaker,...

Genentech swings to profit as sales soar.
July 14, 2003... The USA's oldest biotechnology concern, Genentech, has reported a move into the black for the second quarter of 2003, on the back of strong revenue growth, driven by its anticancer drugs Rituxan (rituximab) and Herceptin (trastuzumab). The...

SPECTRUM.
July 14, 2003... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stock Close %Change On Week Cytogen $10.38 +24.6 Xenova 14.25 pence +16.3 Protein...

Stock Commentary - Europe.
July 14, 2003... European: bourses opened the reporting week to July 7 on a downbeat note amid jitters about US manufacturing data for June coming in below forecasts. However, there was generally a reversal of sentiment for the rest of the week, with all the...

Stock Commentary - Tokyo.
July 14, 2003... TOKYO: saw a powerful rally in the week to July 7, fuelled by the improved market sentiment, active participation by foreign and individual investors and the strength of New York markets. Trading volume was heavy, with robust appreciation in...

Stock Commentary - New York.
July 14, 2003... NEW YORK: equities started off hesitantly, but turned bullish ahead of the Independence Day holiday on July 4 and moved up sharply again on the last reporting day, July 7, on positive attitudes to the upcoming second-quarter reporting season as...

ImClone posts wider losses in 1st qtr.
July 14, 2003... Embattled US drugmaker ImClone has reported a widening of its losses for the first quarter of 2003 on the back of increased R&D spending. The company posted a net loss of $34.8 million, or $0.47 per share, compared with $30.1 million, or $0.41...

Axis-Shield sells autoimmune business.
July 14, 2003... Dundee, Scotland-headquartered Axis-Shield says that it has sold its autoimmune business to the Netherlands-based Euro-Diagnostica Group. The latter, which specializes in in vitro diagnostics, bought the unit for around L2.2 million ($3.6...

Baxter/Abbott patent dispute reinstated.
July 14, 2003... After one federal judge threw out a patent-infringement lawsuit that Abbott had brought against Baxter over a generic version of its inhaled anesthetic Ultane/Sevorane (sevoflurane), a federal appeals court has reinstated the case. The legal...