Salix Pharmaceuticals Launches Azasan; Flagship Product, COLAZAL, Again Achieves All-Time High in Total Weekly Prescriptions
RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2004--Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (Nasdaq:SLXP - News) today announced that Azasan® (azathioprine tablets), its recently acquired product, has been shipped to wholesale distributors and will be available to patients beginning within a few weeks.
"We are pleased to begin 2004 with the launch of the Company's second product, Azasan," stated Ms. Carolyn Logan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Salix Pharmaceuticals. "Azasan should provide physicians with increased flexibility in providing treatment options in oral immunomodulator therapy that offer enhanced convenience and compliance for patients."
Commenting further, Ms. Logan stated, "We also are pleased to confirm that COLAZAL®, the Company's first marketed product, an anti-inflammatory drug approved for the treatment of mildly to moderately active ulcerative colitis, continues to perform well and to demonstrate strong growth in terms of prescriptions and share of market. Once again, in December, as COLAZAL enters its fourth year on the market, the product achieved a new high in weekly total prescriptions and market share. COLAZAL continues to prove to be a great product upon which to build our business. Now, the launch of Azasan creates an exciting new product opportunity for us to leverage the relationships our sales representatives have built with physicians as they introduced COLAZAL, and Salix Pharmaceuticals, during the past three years. As we announced recently, progress continues with the FDA review of Rifaximin, our non-systemic, gastrointestinal site-specific antibiotic, and work is moving forward with the development of Granulated Mesalamine, our unique, prolonged-release formulation of mesalamine. We are committed to building a portfolio of products to treat gastrointestinal disease and are pleased with the success these events demonstrate with respect to our achieving this goal." |
