Glaxo says to Britain sell our drug or we will fire your citizens!
Companies Protest Flu Drug Call
By BRUCE STANLEY
AP Business Writer
LONDON (AP) -- A government proposal to discourage the state-run health service from prescribing a new influenza drug has raised the ire of Britain's three largest pharmaceutical companies.
AstraZeneca PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC joined Glaxo Wellcome PLC [NYSE:GLX - news] in writing to Prime Minister Tony Blair, warning that their industry could suffer if government doctors were barred from prescribing Glaxo's flu drug, Relenza.
The companies said the government's National Institute for Clinical Excellence, which is understood to be discouraging use of Relenza, represents an additional hurdle for British drug makers seeking to win approval for new medicines. They sent their letter late Tuesday.
''This has potentially devastating consequences for the future of the British-based pharmaceutical industry,'' said the letter, which was signed by Tom McKillop, chairman of the British Pharma Group, a trade organization comprising the three firms. He also is chief executive of AstraZeneca.
Relenza was approved for sale in the United States in July, though a government advisory panel had previously advised against it.
NICE chief executive Andrew Dillon refused Wednesday to say whether his agency has actually advised against the use of Relenza by doctors in Britain's National Health Service. He dismissed press reports about the agency's recommendation as ''speculation.''
However, Glaxo Wellcome spokeswoman Nancy Pekarek said a so-called rapid review committee within NICE has in fact rejected the drug. The agency's final decision against Relenza was leaked later to the press, she said.
NICE was set up April 1 to assess new drugs and medical equipment and issue guidelines for their use by the NHS.
The agency's rejection of Relenza would effectively block use of the drug by the majority of people in the United Kingdom who receive medical care through the state-funded NHS -- though it still would be available from doctors in the private sector.
Glaxo Wellcome had been alone in expressing its displeasure. But the company drew the support of competitors AstraZeneca and SmithKline Beecham because they felt that NICE also poses a threat to their own efforts to bring new drugs to market.
''We feel that the U.K. is becoming a more hostile environment for the launch of a new drug,'' said Chris Strutt, head of the British Pharma Group.
In a sign of what could be at stake, Glaxo Wellcome announced Tuesday that it plans to lay off 6 percent of its work force, or 3,400 employees, as part of an effort to restructure in the face of intense global competition. Half the jobs lost would be British.
Pekarek said Relenza is the first anti-viral treatment ever developed for flu, a disease that killed 29,000 people in Britain in 1989-90.
Relenza costs $40 for a five-day treatment. It is the first drug for which NICE has issued a recommendation.
If doctors in the National Health Service were to prescribe the drug, patients would pay less than $10 for it, with the government picking up the remaining cost, Pekarek said.
''There needs to be some consideration for the number of deaths and hospitalizations and the amount of suffering that can be reduced'' through its use by the NHS, she argued.
Dillon of NICE said his agency's recommendation on the drug is expected to lead to a government decision some time before flu season starts in November.
''Clearly, if it's no more effective and costs more than what's already available, we would want to look very closely before making any recommendation to the National Health Service,'' he warned.
In their letter, the three pharmaceutical firms said they were ''appalled'' at NICE's apparent recommendation against Relenza.
''The emergence of NICE as a new obstacle to market entry serves to wipe out, at a stroke, a key element of the U.K.'s competitive advantage,'' the letter said.
In fact, NICE was founded partly to speed up access by government doctors to new drugs and technologies.
The NHS, Dillon said, ''tends to be rather cautious about taking up new technologies.''
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