2009-03-12

"a handful of partners about a possible agreement"

PARIS, March 12 (Reuters) -
NicOx is talking to a handful of partners about a possible agreement on its candidate rheumatism treatment naproxcinod and is getting ready to expand into a pharmaceutical company.
The French biotech group is hoping to market potential blockbuster naproxcinod in the United States with a pharmaceutical partner, using its sales force and regulatory know-how to tap the multi-billion dollar anti-inflammatory market.

"We are in advanced discussions with between one and five partners," Michele Garufi told Reuters on Thursday. "There are some whose interest goes beyond doing a deal in the U.S. but there are also companies interested in Europe and Japan only."
Candidates were of American, European and Japanese origin with a strong primary care sales force in the United States.
He declined to indicate how close NicOx was in making its partner choice as the company is aiming to submit naproxcinod for U.S. marketing approval by the summer.
Some analysts and NicOx itself see sales potential of at least $1 billion a year, but others fear it could be hard to get proper reimbursement for the branded drug in the United States.

"I think the commercial potential is limited," SG Securities analyst Rodolphe Besserve said. "It is not differentiating enough versus naproxen ... there is no difference (between the drugs) in terms of pain treatment, only in blood pressure."
In clinical trials NicOx tested naproxcinod against generic naproxen and results showed that patients on naproxcinod did not suffer from higher blood pressure, a common side effect from traditional anti-inflammatories.
Besserve, who rates NicOx shares "sell" with a 5.4 euros target price, forecasts naproxcinod sales could be 800 million euros ($1.02 billion) provided it manages to strike a deal in the United States.

NicOx has dubbed 2009 its year of transformation as it aspires to grow into a drug company, first in the United States and then in Europe, in the next four years.
It plans to add drugs by buying smaller peers which have drugs that are being marketed -- with the drug making sales of $50 million and $200 million -- or in-license candidate drugs that are nearing the end of their development.
"We are actively looking and talking with several companies, but there is a lot of competition out there," Garufi said.

NicOx is looking for drugs that target the same type of patients who could be using naproxcinod, so it can use the same sales force that will be promoting the anti-inflammatory. Next to rheumatism drugs, rheumatologists prescribe drugs against ulcers, a side-effect some patients get from rheumatism drugs.
Apart from naproxcinod, NicOx is working on other treatments alone or with a partner. Garufi expected to get clarity about the fate of two candidate drugs by the summer, a glaucoma eye disease treatment developed with Pfizer and a respiratory disease treatment with Topigen Pharmaceuticals.

($1=.7826 Euro) (Reporting by Caroline Jacobs; Editing by Sharon Lindores)

Source : Reuters (merci Simis)

1 commentaire:

simis a dit…

voilà le lien Mitch bonne journée, Marino (Simis)

http://www.24x7mag.com/reuters_article.asp?id=20090312inds011.html