Pharma Marketletter articles from November 2002

Pharma Marketletter archives from November 2002

Bayer sells insecticides business to SC Johnson for 725M euros.
November 25, 2002... Bayer AG has sold its insecticides and air-freshener division to the family-owned US company SC Johnson & Son in a deal worth 725 million euros ($732 million). Bayer signed a letter of intent to sell the business to the US firm, whose...

Ajinomoto takes over Shimizu Pharmaceutical.
November 25, 2002... As of December 2, Japan's Ajinomoto will take over Shimizu Pharmaceutical and its marketing subsidiary Shimizu Medical, reports Pharma Japan. Ajinumotu will acquire all of the Shimizu shares held by Suzuyo Co, Takeda Chemical Industries and...

Antipodean Biotech awarded Technology New Zealand grant.
November 25, 2002... Technology New Zealand is to give out its largest-ever R&D grant to a project that intends to develop the capability of the country's medicine industry to take newly-discovered pharmaceuticals to the point of commercialization. The...

Xegenics losses stable ahead of merger.
November 25, 2002... USA-based Xegenics has reported a net loss of $2.7 million, or $0.17 per share, for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002, compared with a net loss of $2.8 million, or $0.17 per share, during the like, year-earlier period. The...

S-P CEO's resignation could spark merger.
November 25, 2002... Following the announced retirement on November 13 of Schering-Plough chief executive Richard Jay Kogan and resignation from the firm's board no later than the company's annual meeting on April 22, 2003, some analysts are suggesting that S-P...

World Trade Ministers agree to let some LDCs produce, and export, generics.
November 25, 2002... At their Informal Ministerial Meeting in Sydney, Australia, on November 14-15, 25 Trade Ministers of World Trade Organization member states have reached a compromise on supplying affordable drugs to less-developed countries. While the...

Altana says it will shift investment abroad, attacks German reform plans.
November 25, 2002... Recently Xetra DAX-listed German drugmaker Altana AG has sharply criticized the new health service reform plan of the country's coalition government and has said that it will move more investment abroad. It is also emerging that two other...

Croatia's Pliva reports strong 3rd-qtr revenues.
November 25, 2002... Croatian pharmaceutical company Pliva has reported a 24.5% increase to 4.48 billion kuna ($597.4 million) in revenues for the first nine months of 2002, with the third quarter alone rising 33.9% to 1.55 billion kuna. Net income grew 20% to...

Roche gets FDA panel OK for Pegasys combo.
November 25, 2002... A US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee has voted unanimously to recommend approval of Roche's hepatitis C virus drug Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) in combination with Copegus (ribavirin). The vote came in much as expected,...

Positive new data for CeNeS' morphine variant M6G.
November 25, 2002... CeNeS Pharmaceuticals of the UK has followed up the news of its $13 million deal with the USA's Acorda (Marketletter November 18) with positive results in a Phase II trial comparing the analgesic efficacy of its morphine-6-glucuronide compound...

Altana, Tanabe forge roflumilast alliance.
November 25, 2002... Altana of Germany and Japan's Tanabe Seiyaku have joined forces to develop and market the former's investigational asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug, roflumilast, in Japan. Altana has already entered into a development and...

Innogenetics sees profitable diagnostics activities.
November 25, 2002... Belgium's Innogenetics has reported an operating profit of 2 million euros ($2 million) for its diagnostics activities for the first three quarters of 2002, with diagnostic product sales reaching 34.3 million euros and excluding any new...

B-MS to delay 10-Q filing.
November 25, 2002... Bristol-Myers Squibb has said that it expects to file its third-quarter 2002 10-Q in February 2003. The company previously announced that there would be a delay in filing due to the expected restatement of its sales and earnings. The...

BioSante receives Solvay milestone.
November 25, 2002... BioSante Pharmaceuticals of the USA has received a clinical milestone payment of $950,000 from Belgium-based Solvay Pharmaceuticals, the licensee of its Bio-E/P-Gel topical hormone therapy, based on estradiol and intended for the treatment of...

ViroLogic signs deal with Pfizer.
November 25, 2002... US biotechnology firm ViroLogic has signed a preferred-provider agreement with pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer. Under the terms of the deal, it will supply the latter firm with HIV-resistance testing technology and services to support Pfizer's...

Photogen restructures and completes $9M financing.
November 25, 2002... Photogen Technologies has announced the closing of its transactions to split off its therapeutic business, consisting of its photodynamic therapy and laser device activities, and sell $9.0 million of its common stock. In addition, the company...

Hambro takes place on Biocompatibles board.
November 25, 2002... Fund manager JO Hambro has taken a place on the board of medical-device maker Biocompatibles in a move which consolidates Hambro's shareholding in the cash-rich but product-poor company, reports the UK's Financial Times. JO Hambro founder...

ImClone posts third quarter loss of $42M.
November 25, 2002... Embattled US drugmaker ImClone, whose former senior officers are embroiled in financial investigations, has reported revenues for the third quarter of 2002 totaling $15.0 million compared with $5.7 million in the like, year-earlier period. Net...

Pfizer slams India's Rx patent law, price regs.
November 25, 2002... Because of India's "very weak" patent law and statutory drug price controls, Pfizer has not reviewed its investment plans in the country, Mohand Sidi Said, president of Pfizer Pharmaceutical Group for Japan, Asia, Africa and Latin America, has...

State court challenges Indian drug price reg.
November 25, 2002... The Bangalore High Court in the southern Karnataka state of India has asked the New Delhi government not to implement its new pharmaceutical policy, which would free several products from the Drug Price Control Order. The industry...

Australian govt brings back Rx co-pay rise plan.
November 25, 2002... The Australian government has re-introduced proposals to increase patient prescription co-payments by almost 30%, with an increase of A$1.00 to A$4.60 ($2.58) for seniors and a total cost of A$28.60 for general patients, which is a rise of...

Biologics set to boost psoriasis drug sales.
November 25, 2002... The world market for psoriasis drug treatments will reach $3.9 billion by 2011, and a major growth factor, especially in the first half of the 2001-2011 period, will be the entry into the sector of biologic agents, says a new study from...

ImClone losses reach $42M in 3rd quarter.
November 25, 2002... Embattled US drugmaker ImClone, whose former senior officers are embroiled in financial investigations, has reported revenues for the third quarter of 2002 totaling $15.0 million compared with $5.7 million in the like, year-earlier period. Net...

Celgene in $45M deal for Anthrogenesis.
November 25, 2002... Nasdaq-listed Celgene looks set to acquire privately-held New Jersey, USA-based biotherapeutics firm Anthrogenesis, a specialist in the recovery of stem cells from human placental tissue following the completion of full-term pregnancy. ...

S-P served with fresh set of subpoenas.
November 25, 2002... USA-based drug major Schering-Plough has reported that, following the disclosure of its Form Q-10 for the quarter ended September 30, 2002, it has received two fresh grand jury subpoenas from federal investigators in the state of...

NeoPharm initiates Ph I/II with LE-SN38.
November 25, 2002... USA-based NeoPharm has initiated Phase I/II clinical trials for LE-SN38, and says that the first patient has completed the initial dose treatment. LE-SN38 is NeoPharm's proprietary Easy-To-Use NeoLipid liposomal formulation of SN38, the active...

GSK planning to buy Bayer pharma unit?
November 25, 2002... Strong rumors emerged over the November 16-17 weekend that GlaxoSmithKline is looking into the possibility of acquiring the troubled pharmaceutical operations of Germany's Bayer The speculation arises from the recent U-turn by Bayer that...

Amgen files suit to gain relief from CMS reimbursement ruling.
November 25, 2002... US biotechnology major Amgen has filed a complaint in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Health and Human Services. The complaint seeks an...

Altana and Tanabe Seiyaku collaborate in Japan.
November 25, 2002... Germany's Altana AG and Tanabe Seiyaku of Japan have announced the signing of an agreement for the development and commercialization of roflumilast in Japan. Under the terms of the agreement, Tanabe will work in close collaboration with...

Pharmacia R&D chief to head up Celltech?
November 25, 2002... The word running around the UK financial community is that Celltech, whose chief executive Peter Fellner is due to step down from this post (Marketletters passim), is recruiting Goran Ando, currently head of R&D at Pharmacia (which is in the...

Roche acquires Antisoma cancer drugs in deal worth up to $500 million.
November 25, 2002... UK niche biopharmaceutical firm Antisoma and Swiss drugs major Roche are to form a broad strategic alliance which grants the latter exclusive worldwide rights to the Antisoma pipeline of oncology products. This alliance will use the...

Evista helps reduce stroke in high-risk women.
November 25, 2002... Eli Lilly's Evista (raloxifene) is associated with a 62% reduction in the risk of all strokes (non-fatal and fatal) in postmenopausal women at high risk for heart disease, according to new findings presented by Elizabeth Barrett-Connor,...

Kyowa Hakko posts falling sales in 1st half.
November 25, 2002... Kyowa Hakko of Japan has reported a 5.6 billion yen ($46.2 million) decrease in sales for the first half of fiscal 2003, ended September 30, 2002, following the sale of its alcoholic beverages franchise to Asahi Breweries. However, the...

Takeda beats forecast in fiscal first half, divestment payment boosts earnings.
November 25, 2002... Japan-based drugmaker Takeda has outperformed its previously-issued financial guidance for the first half of fiscal 2003 ended September 30, 2002, following a 3.6% increase in sales to 528.7 billion yen ($4.36 billion), the consolidation of...

McClellan: global role, new thinking for FDA.
November 25, 2002... The day after President George W Bush swore him in as the new Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, Mark McClellan said that one of his "foremost goals" in his new position will be to ensure that the agency's working environment...

US Together Rx plan now offers generics.
November 25, 2002... The US pharmaceutical industry-operated Together Rx prescription drug discount plan for Medicare enrollees is now, for the first time, also offering generic drugs, under an agreement signed with the Eckerd chain of pharmacies. The deal...

Merck-Medco "kept $6 mill rebates," says state.
November 25, 2002... The Attorney General of the US state of West Virginia has sued Merck & Co and its pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions, claiming fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. The suit says that, while running the Public...

"Accept that patients/payers want to know which drugs are best," EU pharma is told.
November 25, 2002... By virtue of the quality of its science base and expertise, the pharmaceutical industry of the European Union should be able to compete with that of the USA, according to UK Health Minister Lord Philip Hunt. Speaking at the European...

German parliament OKs health economies.
November 25, 2002... By a 303-271 vote, the German parliament has approved Health Minister Ulla Schmidt's package of health service economies, which will take effect on January 1 and aims to save 3 billion euros ($3 billion: Marketletters passim). The drug...

German women "over-Rxed with cheap drugs".
November 25, 2002... In Germany, prescriptions written for women cost an average 15% less than those for men suffering from the same condition, and women are 30% more likely than men to be prescribed a controversial product, the employees' health fund, the DAK,...

Tokyo pharma stocks - week to Nov 18.
November 25, 2002... Tokyo experienced mixed movements in the week ended November 18, as the Nikkei 225 extended its retreat, dropping 1.4%, while the Topix index fell 1.6%. Japan's Gross Domestic Product for the third quarter of 2002 grew 0.7% quarter-on-quarter...

Connetics expands product pipeline.
November 25, 2002... Connetics Corp, a US specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of dermatology products, says it has in-licensed the right to access the clinical, regulatory and manufacturing records of a...

Fresh doubts emerge over Elan's future.
November 25, 2002... Ireland's embattled drugmaker Elan says that it has amended the terms of its supply agreement with USA-based Ligand relating to the extended-release morphine sulfate capsulet Avinza (originally developed by Elan). Cash-strapped Elan is...

Galen beats forecasts for full fiscal year.
November 25, 2002... The UK's Galen Holdings has out-performed expectations for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, powered by robust sales in the important US market. The company posted earnings per share of L0.49, well ahead of the anticipated L0.28-L0.29....

Xoma's losses nearly double in 3rd quarter.
November 25, 2002... USA-based Xoma has posted a net loss of $12.3 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002, compared with $6.8 million during the like, year-earlier period. Loss per share was $0.17 versus $0.10, while net loss for the first nine...

CAT's losses reach L28M for fiscal 2002.
November 25, 2002... UK-based Cambridge Antibody Technology has posted a loss of L28.2 million ($44.3 million) for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, compared with L11.8 million at the end of 2001. Turnover was up to L9.5 million versus L7.1 million, while...

Bradley Pharma extends international reach.
November 25, 2002... US firm Bradley Pharmaceuticals has further expanded its international distribution and marketing, with the signing of five new distributor agreements in Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and Sweden. Under these deals, Bradley's...

Amylin files shelf registration statement.
November 25, 2002... Amylin Pharmaceuticals of the USA says that it has filed a shelf registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which, upon being declared effective by the SEC, would allow the company to issue, from time to time, up to...

Teva closes $450 convertible debenture offering.
November 25, 2002... Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical has announced that the initial purchasers of its previously-announced convertible debenture offering exercised their option to purchase an additional $75 million of debentures. The offering, which now consists...

B-MS gets first approval for schizophrenia drug Abilify in USA.
November 25, 2002... Bristol-Myers Squibb has been granted marketing approval in the USA for Abilify (aripiprazole), the firm's antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia. The clearance comes two months after the US Food and Drug Administration sent B-MS and...

Alexion: mixed data with AMI antibody.
November 25, 2002... Alexion Pharmaceuticals' pexelizumab, an antibody fragment-based complement C-5 inhibitor developed alongside Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, has shown mixed efficacy in two Phase II clinical trials reported at the American Heart...

Bextra linked to skin and allergy ADRs.
November 25, 2002... Pharmacia and the US Food and Drug Administration have sent out letters to health care professionals to highlight new warnings on the label of the company's COX-2 inhibitor Bextra (valdecoxib) after reports of serious allergic reactions with...

Cordis' Cypher works in hard-to-treat lesions.
November 25, 2002... Cordis of the USA's sirolimus-coated Cypher stent has been found to reduce restenosis rates in a particularly hard-to-treat form of coronary artery disease. The lesions, which are known as bifurcated as they involve blockage in both a main...

Novartis buys "awful tasting" medicine.
November 25, 2002... Swiss drug major Novartis is reported to have purchased Buckley's Mixture cough medicine, a product which the manufacturer freely admits "tastes awful," reports Canada's Montreal Gazette. Frank Buckley, founder WK Buckley's son, will be...

Biora improves net loss in year to date.
November 25, 2002... Sweden's Biora AB has reported net sales of 28.1 million Swedish kronor ($3.1 million) for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002, an increase of 27.7% on the like, year-earlier period. The company significantly reduced its net loss in the...

Price cuts on 700 products in Sweden.
November 25, 2002... Now that generic drugs have become an alternative in Sweden, the country's pharmacy monopoly chain Apoteket AB has said savings of some 150 million Swedish kronor ($16.7 million) per year are expected. The new regulations were introduced...

R&D costs dropped in Sweden last year.
November 25, 2002... According to the Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, LIF, there was a drop in R&D costs in the country for 2000 and 2001, following steady growth from 1997. LIF has just released results from a survey amongst its member...

Three metoprolol drugs withdrawn in Sweden.
November 25, 2002... Three drug products with metoprolol as their active ingredient have now been withdrawn from the Swedish market, reports Lakemedelsverket, the country's medical products agency. The three antihypertensives - Metoprolol Retard Ipex,...

Pharmaceutical companies in the USA gear up for the Privacy Rule in 2003.
November 25, 2002... It is important for pharmaceutical companies to consider taking measures to ensure compliance in order to maintain consumer confidence in web-based tools and information collection when the US Privacy Rule, mandated by the Health Insurance...

MCO drug formulary collusion violates US antitrust laws, says WLF.
November 25, 2002... If recent press reports suggesting that managed care plans are colluding in the design of their prescription drug formularies are correct, such conduct would fit squarely into the category of hardcore anticompetitive practices which are...

US Senate OKs an end to "sweetheart" deals.
November 25, 2002... The US Senate has backed Senator Patrick Leahy's Drug Competition Act (S 754) which, he says, will eliminate secret or "sweetheart" deals between branded and generic drugmakers aimed at keeping generics off the market. Introducing S 754,...

Pfizer UK donates L25,000 to young pharmacists project.
November 25, 2002... Pfizer UK has donated L25,000 ($39,525) to an innovative new project being run by the Young Pharmacists' Group. The YPG Pharmacy Project, the company says, is a groundbreaking initiative designed to help address some of the problems facing...

Chiron signs multi-year deal with US blood collection bodies.
November 25, 2002... Chiron has signed multi-year agreements with the primary blood collection organizations in the USA for supply, service and support of its Procleix HIV-1/HCV Assay and System. Details of the agreements with the American Red Cross, America's...

Pfizer/Pharmacia merger delay?
November 25, 2002... Shares of merging drugmakers Pfizer and Pharmacia started to drift in London in early dealings on November 20, said Madoff Securities, reported by Reuters, after it emerged that the European Commission competition authority had asked for more...

Dade Behring 3rd-qtr revenues up 9%.
November 25, 2002... USA-based clinical diagnostics company Dade Behring has reported stronger-than-anticipated sales for the third quarter of 2002, which were were partially offset by one-time costs related to the company's recently- completed capital...

PowderJect to expand flu vaccine capacity.
November 25, 2002... UK-based PowderJect Pharmaceuticals says that it plans to fast-track the expansion of its flu vaccine manufacturing capacity, following Wyeth's unexpected decision to cease production of its FluShield vaccine. PowderJect has already...

CytRx losses increase in 3rd quarter.
November 25, 2002... Nasdaq-listed CytRx has reported a net loss of $2.5 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002, compared with $1 million during the like, year-earlier period. Loss per share was $0.13 versus $0.10. Revenue for the quarter fell...

DanioLabs receives funding from Wellcome trust.
November 25, 2002... Cambridge, UK-based DanioLabs Ltd says that it has received L456,000 ($720,936) in additional funding from the Wellcome Trust subsidiary Catalyst BioMedical, that will allow the company to further progress R&D in its core therapeutic areas of...

UK govt defies medical opinion on smallpox Vaccine.
November 25, 2002... The UK's ruling Labour Party has come under a fresh wave of criticism over its handling of the substantial smallpox vaccine contract which was recently awarded to UK-based vaccine-maker PowderJect (Marketletter passim). In appealing for a...

Psychiatric Genomics raises $17M.
November 25, 2002... The USA's Psychiatric Genomics has raised $17 million in an initial round of Series B financing led by Cayman Islands-based investment fund Catalytix. PG will use the funds to further its efforts in identifying gene expression patterns of...

Ascend Therapeutics launched in USA.
November 25, 2002... A new specialty pharmaceuticals business, to be called Ascend Therapeutics, has been officially launched and will be headquartered in Virginia, USA. The company has been established to produce innovative treatments for men's and women's...

Somavert cleared for acromegaly in EU.
November 25, 2002... Pharmacia has been granted approval by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency to market its growth hormone receptor antagonist Somavert (pegvisomant) as a second-line therapy for patients suffering from acromegaly, a life-threatening...

Inspire drops chronic bronchitis product.
November 25, 2002... Inspire Pharmaceuticals of the USA has elected to discontinue development of INS365 Respiratory for chronic bronchitis, although the P2Y2 agonist remains in development in an opthalmic formulation for dry eye. The chronic bronchitis...

WTO accord on cheap generics for LDCs "could prove unworkable," say NGOs.
November 25, 2002... If the proposal by the Trade Ministers of 25 World Trade Organization member states at their meeting in Sydney, Australia (see page 16 ) to allow less-developed countries to import generic drugs is accepted by the wider WTO membership, an...

South Korea to cut some drug prices 7% in 2003.
November 25, 2002... South Korea's Ministry of Health has announced that the prices of 2,732 drugs are to be cut by 7% on average next year, following its examination of 12,100 medicines whose prices had last been set three years ago. The Ministry says it expects...

Correction: IMPROVE study.
November 25, 2002... CORRECTION: In the November 18 issue of Marketletter, an article on the IMPROVE study erroneously reported that patients treated with the combination of rosiglitazone plus metformin experienced a decrease in triglycerides of 10.8%. In fact,...

BioPartners, DURECT to work on sustained-release IFN alfa.
November 25, 2002... BioPartners of Switzerland has entered into an agreement with the USA's DURECT Corp to develop a sustained-release formulation of interferon alfa for the treatment of hepatitis C. BioPartners maintains that the use of its IFN alfa compound...

Guilford withdraws European application for Gliadel.
November 25, 2002... Guilford Pharmaceuticals has withdrawn its application to the European Commission to extend the approved indications for Gliadel (carmustine), its implantable treatment for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, to include use during surgery for...

Exelon effective in vascular dementia?
November 25, 2002... Novartis' cholinesterase inhibitor Exelon (rivastigmine tartrate) is effective as a long-term treatment for patients with subcortical vascular dementia, according to the results of a study published in the Journal of Neurological Sciences...

ARIAD develops animal model approach.
November 25, 2002... ARIAD Pharmaceuticals has published a new study demonstrating, for the first time, a novel way of creating clinically-relevant animal models of human disease where none currently exist, using its patented cell-signaling regulation technology....

CollaGenex' Periostat of value in ACS?
November 25, 2002... A pilot study has revealed that CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals' metalloproteinase inhibitor Periostat (doxycycline hyclate), already approved as a treatment for periodontal disease, significantly lowers levels of the C-reactive protein in patients...

Cancer Research UK to trial imiquimod in skin cancer.
November 25, 2002... Cancer Research UK is to fund a five-year clinical trial of 3M Pharmaceuticals' immune response modifier Aldara (imiquimod) cream in patients with basal cell carcinoma. The drug is already approved as a topical treatment for genital and...

New self-injector for Betaferon in UK.
November 25, 2002... Schering AG has launched a new self-injection device for its multiple sclerosis treatment Betaferon (interferon beta-1b) in the UK. The new product, Betaject Light, is designed to make it easy for patients with MS to administer their...

CREDO study supports one-year Plavix treatment in PCI patients.
November 25, 2002... One-year data from the CREDO trial of Sanofi-Synthelabo and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Plavix/Iscover (clopidogrel) in combination with aspirin support the value of long-term treatment with both drugs, rather than aspirin alone, in patients who...