Axcan Pharma receives award
SOURCE: AXCAN PHARMA INC.
ME, TSE SYMBOL: AXP
(Montreal and Toronto Stock Exchanges)
MONT SAINT-HILAIRE, Quebec, June 17 /CNW/ - Axcan Pharma Inc. is proud to announce that the Company was awarded the prestigious 'Industrie de la Santé- 1999'' Award of the Fondation Armand-Frappier. This award, granted each year during a gala event in support of health research, was presented to Axcan on Wednesday, June 16, before an audience of more than 500 people from the healthcare industry, as well as people from the business and education sectors.
This award attests to Axcan's contribution to the growth of the
healthcare industry in Canada and to the Company's achievements in
gastroenterology. Axcan thus joins leading companies that already received this award, such as Biochem Pharma, Hoechst Marion Roussel or more recently the Centre de Recherche Astra Montreal.
In accepting the award, Mr. Léon F. Gosselin, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Axcan, thanked all the employees of Axcan and shared this award with them. ''Reception of the Armand-Frappier Award reflects the quality of work of a whole team, that now consists of some 90 people,'' he emphasized. ''At Axcan, our main concern is to provide gastroenterologists with the tools they require in order to improve the quality of life of their patients. We are convinced that the financial success of our Company is directly linked to our
contribution to the health of the population,'' he added.
Gastroenterology is a branch of medicine specializing in functions and diseases related to the digestive organs. These therapeutic areas represent 18% of the world pharmaceutical market. Almost 25% of the population will suffer from a digestive disorder at one time or another in life.
Axcan markets 15 products in Canada and 2 in the United-States, among which URSO(R) (ursodiol), for which the Company obtained an approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in December, 1997. Axcan thus became one of only four Canadian public companies to receive such an approval for an innovative drug.
Revenues of the Company increased from $18 million to $43 million during the last fiscal year. Forty percent of these revenues are from sales in the United States. The Company now plans to conclude agreements with other pharmaceutical companies to market products in their countries that are currently marketed by Axcan in Canada and the United States. Eventually, Axcan also plans to have these pharmaceutical companies market product candidates that are in its research and development portfolio, once they are approved.
Axcan Pharma is a Canadian pharmaceutical company involved in the
development and distribution of pharmaceutical products, mainly in the field of gastroenterology. Axcan is one of the ten largest publicly traded health-care companies in Canada and is listed on the Montreal and Toronto Stock Exchanges under the AXP symbol. |
