Pharma Marketletter articles from June 2003

Pharma Marketletter archives from June 2003

Indian Rx prices stable or falling, says NPPA.
June 2, 2003... Prices of widely-used medicines in India are falling or not changing, with no move in the prices of 53% of the top- selling brands in 2002, says a study by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, based on ACNeilson ORG- Marg data. In...

Drugs "often dearer in LDCs than rich states".
June 2, 2003... In an effort to lower drug prices, the World Health Organization and the health activist umbrella group Health Action International have launched a new manual outlining how to collect data for 30 widely-used medications to identify how prices...

Australia views clin trials, unapproved TG access.
June 2, 2003... In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and National Health and Medical Research Council have begun a review of the national arrangements for clinical trials and access to unapproved therapeutic goods. The review is timely, they...

Brazil may buy Cuban malaria, dengue drugs.
June 2, 2003... Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, Brazilian Health Minister Humberto Costa said he will visit Cuba in July to discuss the possible purchase of Cuban drug treatments for malaria and dengue...

DNA, protein and tissue/cellular arrays market to top $1.6B by 2008.
June 2, 2003... The worldwide arrays market is projected to experience a 15% overall compound annual growth rate over the coming five years, as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seek more efficient and cost-effective tools to identify drug targets,...

Solvay to introduce new flu vaccine production process.
June 2, 2003... Belgian pharmaceutical and chemicals firm Solvay expects to launch a new process for making flu vaccine in 2005, which it claims could reduce the death toll in Europe by millions in the event of a flu pandemic. The firm says that its MDCK cell...

Pharma firms give thumbs up to European IP protection move.
June 2, 2003... The proposal for a European Union patent, finally agreed recently by the EU's Competitiveness Council (Marketletter March 10), is supported by UK pharmaceutical businesses, although many are still concerned about the negative effects of the...

Plimsoll launches market analysis of UK pharma consultancies.
June 2, 2003... Plimsoll Publishing has launched a new market analysis of the pharmaceutical consultancy industry, covering 78 individually analyzed companies. This is available at a price of L305 (approximately $498) and further details can be found on web...

US biotech industry "leaner and meaner" following difficult 2002.
June 2, 2003... Set against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty, a bear market and the ultimately real threat of a US led war with Iraq, last year the biotechnology industry in the USA underwent significant restructuring and revaluation to ensure its...

Potentially dangerous over-medicating of US seniors "more than doubled since 1999".
June 2, 2003... The number of US seniors subjected to potentially dangerous over-medication has more than doubled since 1999, as levels of drug prescribing and dispensing are the highest ever, according to data released by Medco Health Solutions, the pharmacy...

Rx benefit is Medicare priority, say ex-CMS heads.
June 2, 2003... While Medicare needs broad reform, short-term solutions such as fixed government contributions or changing purchasing contracts will not address overall needs, the three immediate past administratiors of the US Centers for Medicaid and Medicare...

Roche's Fuzeon cleared in Switzerland.
June 2, 2003... Roche has announced that Fuzeon (enfuvirtide), the first in a novel class of HIV entry inhibitors, has been granted marketing authorization in Switzerland, its second market, and has received reimbursement approval from the Federal Insurance...

Abbott moves closer to EU Humira approval.
June 2, 2003... Abbott Laboratories has taken a step closer to securing European Union approval for its anti-tumor necrosis factor antibody Humira (adalimumab) with the granting of a Positive Opinion from the EU's Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products....

Schering AG gets CPMP OK for Ventavis.
June 2, 2003... Germany's Schering AG has reported that its Ventavis (iloprost) drug has been recommended for approval by the European Union's Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products as a treatment for patients with primary pulmonary hypertension. The...

Ipsen to develop Spirogen's cancer drug.
June 2, 2003... Ipsen (formerly Beaufour Ipsen) has acquired worldwide rights to develop a novel antitumor agent, SJG-136, from London, UK-based Spirogen. The agreement also provides Ipsen access to three gene targets as a platform for the synthesis and...

Amgen acquires 21% stake in Tularik deal.
June 2, 2003... California, USA-headquartered Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology concern, has signed a lucrative deal with Nasdaq-listed Tularik to develop new oncology treatments. Under the terms of the agreement, the former will acquire a 21.3%...

PanGeo swings to loss, slashes 130 jobs.
June 2, 2003... Montreal, Canada-based specialty drugmaker PanGeo Pharma has slashed around 130 jobs as part of cost cutting measures and restructuring in a move that will bring its total staff down to just 375. The company said that it was accelerating...

Modest growth for Ipsen in 2002.
June 2, 2003... French pharmaceutical company Ipsen Group, formerly named Beaufour Ipsen, has reported solid, but not spectacular, results for 2002, with a 2.7% increase in sales to 718.4 million euros ($836.9 million) and consolidated net income of 76.8...

CeNeS gains L9M from product sales.
June 2, 2003... UK-based CeNeS Pharmaceuticals has completed the sale of three of its drugs for over L9 million ($14.7 million) in cash. Chairman Alan Goodman said that, as a result of this sale, "CeNeS is now a well-funded biotechnology company with a clear...

deCode sees 1st-qtr revenues doubling.
June 2, 2003... Iceland-based deCode Genetics says that revenues for the quarter ended March 31 more than doubled to $11.8 million, compared with $5.3 million in the like, 2002 quarter, largely reflecting the growth of the firm's product development and...

US FDA publishes PMS studies' status, sees "considerable room for improvement".
June 2, 2003... The US Food and Drug Administration has announced two measures to inform the public about the status of manufacturers' commitments to carry out further clinical studies after approval of certain drugs and biological products. One of the...

Canada's QLT vows to fill drug pipeline after tariquadar's demise.
June 2, 2003... Despite the company's recent setback with the non-small cell lung cancer drug tariquidar (Marketletter May 19), Canada's QLT saw its share price recover after its chief executive, Paul Hastings, made a commitment to find a replacement for the...

Japanese move to counteract lack of bioinformatics specialists.
June 2, 2003... Reacting to the perceived threat in Japan of a lack of skilled workers in the field of bioinformatics, which straddles the two disciplines of biology and computer programming, the Japan Biological Information Consortium is preparing a course of...

EU OKs tiered Rx pricing plan for LDCs.
June 2, 2003... The Council of the European Commission has adopted a regulation enabling exporters to deliver essential drugs at heavily-discounted ("tiered") prices to 76 of the world's poorest countries by ensuring they are not diverted back to the European...

German upper house rejects positive Rx list.
June 2, 2003... The upper house of the German parliament has approved legislative moves to reject government proposals to replace the system under which public health insurance pays for all prescription medicines, apart from those which appear on a negative...

Hungarian Rx subsidy overspend to soar.
June 2, 2003... Hungary's health care system will overspend government-set budget targets for subsidizing prescription drugs by as much as 50 billion forints ($241.5 million) this year, the national drugmakers' association has claimed. While total...

Russian pharma output up 11% in 1st qtr.
June 2, 2003... Russia's Ministry of Industry has said that the country's production of pharmaceuticals and chemicals rose 11% in the first quarter of 2003 over the like, year-earlier period, reports the Interfax news agency. Production at the Nizhfarm...

Japanese over-Rxing "costs $3.5bill/year".
June 2, 2003... Abuse of the Japanese system of allowing prescribing doctors to keep the difference between drugs' wholesale costs and their recommended retail prices is raising the national drugs bill some $3.5 billion a year, says new research by Toshiaki...

WHO steps up drug supply efforts in Iraq.
June 2, 2003... The World Health Organization reports that it is working to distribute life-saving drugs throughout Iraq, despite a "cluster" of difficulties. The distribution system has not functioned since the conflict began, due to obvious limitations...

India revises 22 bulk drug prices.
June 2, 2003... India's National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has revised the prices of 22 bulk drugs and derivatives. These include drops for chloroquine phosphate, pentazocine, procaine penicillin G, benzathine penicillin G, pyrantel pamoate,...

Roche deal sparks Maxygen share surge.
June 2, 2003... Swiss drugs and diagnostic maker Roche has entered into a potentially lucrative $230 million deal with Nasdaq-listed biotechnology concern Maxygen, in a bid to develop superior versions of the immunomodulator protein alpha interferon...

Lonza issues warning as market worsens.
June 2, 2003... Switzerland's Lonza, which supplies some of the world's largest drugmakers with speciality ingredients, has downwardly revised its earnings forecast for 2003, citing worsening market conditions and their negative impact across many of its...

GSK chasing new exec following AGM debacle.
June 2, 2003... Europe's leading drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline, has moved to restore a measure of confidence in its boardroom activities, following a shareholder revolt over its remuneration policy at last week's annual general meeting (Marketletter June 2), and...

Positive Phase IIb findings for ReoPro.
June 2, 2003... New data presented at the 12th European Stroke Conference in Valencia, Spain, show that Eli Lilly/Centocor's glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor ReoPro (abciximab) provides significant improvements in the recovery of ischemic stroke patients when...

Sepracor's Estorra effective: long-term study.
June 2, 2003... The results of the first long-term efficacy and safety study for Sepracor's Estorra (eszopiclone) in patients with insomnia were reported at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Francisco. In the six-month, double-blind,...

Fournier to sell Eneas in Turkey.
June 2, 2003... Grupo Vita of Spain has licensed to France-headquartered Fournier Pharma the marketing rights in Turkey for its antihypertensive drug Eneas. The product, a fixed-dose combination of the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, enalapril, and...

Oxytrol accepted for review in Canada.
June 2, 2003... Watson Pharmaceuticals' New Drug Application for its incontinence patch, Oxytrol (oxybutynin), has been accepted for review by the Canadian regulatory authorities. The product is the only transdermal patch-based available to treat overactive...

WX-UK1 to start US Phase I evaluation.
June 2, 2003... The US Food and Drug Administration has approved an Investigational New Drug application submitted by Germany's Wilex AG for WX-UK1, its small-molecule inhibitor of the urokinase-type plasminogen activator system. The agent has potential use in...

Boeh Ingelheim launches largest-ever stroke prevention trial with dipyridamole.
June 2, 2003... New scientific approaches for the prevention and acute treatment of stroke were the focus at the 12th European Stroke Conference in Valencia, Spain, last week. During the symposium and subsequent press conference, Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim...

Spain's Faes starts Ph III trial of Bilastina.
June 2, 2003... Madrid, Spain-based drugmaker Faes has begun a second-stage Phase III clinical trial for its new antiallergic Bilastina (bilastine) in Europe. In a statement, the company said it will begin to test the drug in nine European countries, including...

Euro Court opinion backs Bayer over PIs.
June 2, 2003... A European Union appeal court decision in 2000 to overturn the European Commission's fining of Bayer over its curbing of parallel imports has been upheld by Advocate General Antonio Tizzano in the European Court of Justice. In 1996, the...

EU Advocate General says German funds' Rx price-fixing is anticompetitive, but...
June 2, 2003... While the collective decisions by the leading German associations of sickness funds to fix the amounts payable for certain medicines are, in principle, violative of European Union competition law, this law does not apply if the funds were...

AstraZeneca initiates Phase III Cerovive trials in acute ischemic stroke.
June 2, 2003... AstraZeneca has initiated two major Phase III pivotal clinical trials to determine the effect of Cerovive (also known as NXY-059) on disability and neurological recovery in acute ischemic stroke patients. The clinical trial program, known as...

German biotech "now facing major crisis".
June 2, 2003... Severe funding shortages and structural weakness are forcing the German biotechnology industry to restructure, in what is being seen as a struggle for survival, says a new report from Ernst & Young. The industry is facing a hard year and will...

Ist meeting of EMEA patients working group.
June 2, 2003... The European Medicines Evaluation Agency's new working group with patients has met for the first time, bringing together members of the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products and representatives of European patients' and consumer...

Czech Republic 1st-qtr foreign drug trade.
June 2, 2003... The Czech Republic exported pharmaceuticals and related products worth a total of 2.32 billion koruna ($87.6 million) during the first quarter of 2002, including sales to European Union nations valued at 806 million koruna, reports the Czech...

Irish drug prices in April.
June 2, 2003... Ireland's consumer price of pharmaceuticals was up 0.4% in April over March and 5.8% higher than in April 2002, the Central Statistics Office reports. The price of prescription drugs was unchanged month-on-month and 5.9% higher year-on-year in...

German regulators clear Atrix facility.
June 2, 2003... US firm Atrix Laboratories says that the German regulatory authority, the Bundesinstitut fur Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM), has recently completed a successful inspection of its manufacturing facility as part of the on-going process...

GeneProt licenses first protein to Novartis.
June 2, 2003... US proteomics company GeneProt says that Novartis Pharma AG of Switzerland has licensed one of its proteins. Financial terms were not disclosed. "This is the first protein to be licensed under our strategic collaboration with Novartis. We...

Bioniche completes $13.5M financing.
June 2, 2003... Canada's Bioniche Life Sciences has announced the closing of a private placement of $13.5 million royalty- enhanced debentures to the Business Development Bank of Canada and two other major Canadian financial institutions. Lead agent for the...

Bioniche settles with Fidia over hyaluronic acid patent.
June 2, 2003... Bioniche Life Sciences of Canada and Italy's Fidia Farmaceutici SpA have reached an agreement under which the former recognizes the validity of Fidia's patent for hyaluronic acid over which the parties were involved in litigation. Under...

Alicaforsen benefits pouchitis patients.
June 2, 2003... Patients suffering from the inflammatory bowel disease, pouchitis, experienced an improvement in clinical disease symptoms following treatment with alicaforsen (ISIS 2302), it was revealed last week at the 2003 Digestive Disease Week meeting...

BioMS' MBP8298 effective in MS patients.
June 2, 2003... Final results have been released by Canada's BioMS Medical Corp from a four-year Phase II trial evaluating the use of its synthetic peptide MBR8298 in patients with multiple sclerosis. The agent is reported to reduce anti-MBP antibodies...

Isotechnika expanding R&D pipeline.
June 2, 2003... Canadian biotechnology company Isotechnika has announced that it is developing a novel immunosuppressive agent, TAFA93, to potentially provide a complementary therapy to its lead product ISA247 for the prevention of organ rejection after...

Novel delivery of the anticancer protein TNF.
June 2, 2003... Tumor necrosis factor has been shown to be a useful protein for the treatment of solid tumors, but its use has been limited because of toxic side effects. OctoPlus of the Netherlands and USA-based CytImmune Sciences have announced that...

Losses soar at Chugai on merger charge, underlying growth remains steady.
June 2, 2003... Japanese drugmaker Chugai has reported a favorable earnings performance for the fiscal year to March 2003, exceeding targets on the back of much stronger turnover of the influenza treatment Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and cost cutting measures. ...

Overseas performance boosts Takeda in 2003.
June 2, 2003... Japan's Takeda has posted strong results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, on solid growth of its international strategic compounds, although the firm anticipates only a modest earnings gain for the coming fiscal year on slowing sales...

Spain's Probitas seeking stock listing.
June 2, 2003... Madrid, Spain-headquartered Probitas Pharma plans to list on the Spanish stock exchange before the end of the year and grow its business in the USA amid increasing confidence from within the firm regarding the expansion of the hemoderivatives...

Lilly plans major Spanish investment.
June 2, 2003... The Spanish subsidiary of Eli Lilly is looking to invest 450-500 million euros ($534.4-$593.7 million) at its facility near Madrid, with a view to producing the firm's follow-up to the antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine). Javier Ellena,...

BioProgress first to float in 2003.
June 2, 2003... Cambridge, UK-headquartered BioProgress, a developer of animal product-free encapsulation technology, has become the first biotechnology concern to float on the stock exchange this year following the announcement by MedPharma that it was...

Bayer rejects allegations over clotting drug sales.
June 2, 2003... German drugs and chemical maker Bayer AG has responded to claims in the New York Times that it knowingly sold potentially-infected blood products during the 1980s by saying that it "acted responsibly, ethically and humanely" throughout the...

Cost-cutting reaps dividends at Shionogi.
June 2, 2003... Japanese drugmaker Shionogi has reported robust earnings growth for the fiscal year to March 2003, exceeding its own targets, thanks to stronger-than-forecast cost-control measures and the positive effect of the absence of the drug wholesaler...

Sales down at Orion; R&D unit abandoned.
June 2, 2003... Finnish drugmaker Orion has announced that it will not proceed with its plans to set up a new pharmaceutical research company, saying that, in light of recent developments, it is no longer strategically appropriate. A new R&D strategy will...

Eli Lilly set to make $350M UK investment.
June 2, 2003... Indiana, USA-headquartered Eli Lilly says that it is increasing investment in its UK business operations by around L220 million ($350 million) over the next four years. Lilly, which already employs over 3,000 staff in the country, said in...

Aventis Japan names Masaki Noguchi general manufacturing/marketing manager.
June 2, 2003... Ahead of the new Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law requirements which become effective in 2005, Aventis Pharma Japan has named Masaki Noguchi, executive vice president and holder of a pharmacist license, to the new position of general...

ImClone gets $6M milestone from Merck KGaA.
June 2, 2003... ImClone Systems of the USA has received a $6 million payment from Merck KGaA for achieving a manufacturing milestone under their agreement for the cancer drug Erbitux (cetuximab), which the German firm has licensed for markets outside the USA...

Promotions at Kyowa Hakko.
June 2, 2003... At Japan's Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, managing director Yuzuru Matsuda will be promoted to the post of president, replacing Tadashi Hirata, who will become chairman, effective June 27, reports Pharma Japan.

IVAX to acquire inhalation delivery system company.
June 2, 2003... IVAX Corp has agreed to acquire Advanced Tobacco Products, an inhalation technology company, whose patented nicotine impermeable copolymer technology is used in the Nicotrol/Nicorette inhaler, marketed for smoking cessation by Pharmacia (now...

India's Lupin says its net profit plunged 83.6% to 228 million rupees.
June 2, 2003... India's Lupin says its net profit plunged 83.6% to 228 million rupees ($4.9 million) in the fourth quarter ended March 31. However, its total income (net of excise taxes) has increased almost 20% to around 2.7 billion rupees. Lower offtake of...

Merck KGaA enters marketing deal on Campral with Nippon Shinyaku.
June 2, 2003... Germany's Merck KGaA has entered into a development, marketing and promotion deal with Japan's Nippon Shinyaku for its alcohol dependence treatment Campral (acamprosate). The deal includes milestone payments at key Japanese development stages,...

Fake Lipitor recalled in USA.
June 2, 2003... Some 100,000 bottles of the world's top-selling cholesterol-lowerer, Pfizer's Lipitor (atorvastatin) have been recalled by the US Food and Drug Administration because of suspected counterfeiting. The agency suggests that the 90-pill bottles of...

Cell Therapeutics' Trisenox now available in Spain.
June 2, 2003... Cell Therapeutics says that its Trisenox (arsenic trioxide) injection is now available in Spain for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory acute promyelocytic leukemia. In addition to the USA, the drug has been commercialized in...

Alzheimer's compound patents issued to Faust Pharma.
June 2, 2003... French drug discovery firm Faust Pharmaceuticals has been issued European Patent no 1140825 and US Patent no 6,436,984 claiming new chemical compounds and their use in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, most notably Alzheimer's...

Domantis/Peptech's anti-TNF alpha antibody in RA.
June 2, 2003... UK firm Domantis and Australia's Peptech claim to have achieved "outstanding" preclinical results for their lead human anti-TNF alpha domain antibody in preclinical studies, saying that administration of the compound completely prevented the...

FDA clears VaxGen's IND for anthrax vaccine candidate.
June 2, 2003... US firm VaxGen says that the Food and Drug Administration has cleared its Investigational New Drug application for its candidate human anthrax vaccine. The company adds that it will now initiate a Phase I clinical trial involving around 100...

FDA delays review of Barr's Seasonale contraceptive.
June 2, 2003... Barr Laboratories says the US Food and Drug Administration has extended the original 10-month Prescription Drug User Fee Act deadline for the completion of its review of Seasonale (levonorgestrel 0.15mg/ethinyl estradiol 0.03 mg) contraceptive....

Schering AG enters deals with EPIX and Astex.
June 2, 2003... Germany's Schering AG and USA-based EPIX have agreed to investigate new approaches for innovative magnetic resonance imaging contrast media. In addition, the two firms have signed an agreement for the development and commercialization of...

GPC Biotech names Prabhavathi Fernandes to supervisory board.
June 2, 2003... Prabhavathi Fernandes, most recently chief executive of Ricerca Biosciences, has been appointed to the supervisory board of Germany's GPC Biotech AG.

Provalis names Peter Bream finance director.
June 2, 2003... UK medical diagnostics and pharmaceuticals firm Provalis has appointed Peter Bream as group financial director and a member of its board.

Unichem takes on David Coles as MD.
June 2, 2003... UK-based drug wholesaler Unichem says that ex-DHL logistics expert David Coles is joining the firm as managing director.

QLT names Maurice Wolin VP clinical research and medical affairs.
June 2, 2003... Canada's QLT has recruited Maurice Wolin as vice president, clinical research and medical affairs. Dr Wolin was previously VP, oncology R&D, at Chiron.

Amgen appoints David Parkinson to head oncology clinical development.
June 2, 2003... David Parkinson has moved from Novartis Pharmaceutical to the post of vice president and head of clinical oncology therapeutics at US biotechnology firm Biogen.

EC aid for Merck KGaA production plant.
June 2, 2003... The European Commission has approved aid of 78 million euros ($92.6 million) to German drugmaker Merck KGaA to build a plant for the manufacture of new anticancer drugs in eastern Germany. The EC has said the aid will see jobs created and its...

OSI Pharma names Gabriel Leung exec VP and president oncology.
June 2, 2003... USA-based OSI Pharmaceuticals has named Gabriel Leung, a former Pharmacia executive, as executive vice president and president of its oncology business.