UCB deal details:
UCB<UCBBt.BR>sees 1999 U.S. Zyrtec sales $575 mln
BRUSSELS, June 8 (Reuters) - Belgian drugs and chemicals company UCB expects U.S. sales of its anti-allergy drug Zyrtec to reach $575 million in 1999, after $412 million in 1998, Chief Executive Georges Jacobs told the annual meeting on Tuesday.
Jacobs previously had forecast 1999 U.S. sales of Zyrtec at $550 million.
UCB receives royalties of 12 percent on the U.S. sales of Zyrtec from its U.S. marketing partner, Pfizer <PFE.N>, as well as receiving a payment equal to 25 percent of the sales to reimburse its costs of marketing Zyrtec in the United States, Jacobs said.
Although UCB's actual marketing costs must be covered out of the reimbursement from Pfizer, UCB realises a profit on that payment, Jacobs told reporters following the annual meeting.
Although Zyrtec will begin to come off patent protection in Europe in 2002, Jacobs said UCB's position is strong as a result of a licence agreement signed in June with U.S.-based Sepracor <SEPR.O> giving UCB patent protection until 2013 on a new allergy drug.
UCB will pay Sepracor royalties five percent on sales of the drug, levocetirizne, which is part of the same family of drugs as Zyrtec. "That's peanuts," Jacobs said of the level of royalty payments UCB will make.
The new drug is expected to win market share because it offers lower dosing and great efficacity than Zyrtecx.
"It's true that the share of Zyrtec will suffer in Europe," Jacobs said of the impact of the patent protection loss.
He noted Zyrtec will remain under patent protection in the U.S. until 2007 and said UCB will also benefit from the growing overall market for allergy drugs.
"The market is growing fast," he said. "If you have a good strategy, a post-patent strategy, you can remain important in a generic market.
"We are developing a study of how to position ourselves in a generic market," he added.
UCB's purchase last year of the CytoMed research laboratory in Boston is expected to boost the pharmaceutical sector. "In two, three years we'll get another drug that could be important, a respiratory drug," Jacobs said.
He said it was premature to discuss the potential market for the drug.
But he said that the development of new products was critical for UCB's pharmaceuticals sector.
"The three to five years to come are very well loaded," he said. "But the next stage will very much depend on our ability to develop new drugs." |
