SciClone says Zadaxin has strong sales potential
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., Feb. 23 (Reuters) - SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NasdaqNM:SCLN - news) CEO Donald Sellers said the company plans to launch final-stage trials of its drug Zadaxin for the treatment of hepatitis C in the United States and Europe sometime this year.
Speaking at a conference on growth company stocks, Sellers said that annual sales of Zadaxin, an immunity-enhancing drug Sciclone now sells in 16 countries, may one day surpass $1 billion.
Fourth quarter 1999 sales of Zadaxin, an injectable drug used to treat hepatitis B, hepatitis C and cancer, totaled $3 million, he said.
The drug is now approved in Italy and 15 countries in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Sellers said SciClone did not originally have worldwide rights to the drug and began pursuing the other, larger, markets only after it became the global owner.
Zadaxin is composed of a synthetic version of a compound that occurs naturally in the body's immune system. ''We inject it into the body in a much higher concentration. It is very safe and it makes other drugs work better,'' Sellers said, adding that clinical trials so far have shown no drug-related side effects or toxicity due to Zadaxin.
He noted that side effects caused by other drugs being used to treat a disease, such as chemotherapy for cancer, will still occur.
Sellers said the annual sales potential for Zadaxin is over $250 million in the U.S., $500 million in Japan and more than $1 billion worldwide.
The company expects a decision on a marketing application in Japan during 2003.
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