Sepracor to Sell European Rights to Lunesta
Boston Business Journal - 12:55 PM EST Friday
Sepracor Inc. plans to sell European rights to its Lunesta sleeping aid and will include data on the drug's benefits on depression in the application for approval next year.
The company plans to submit its application for European approval of the medicine in the second quarter of 2007, Jonae Barnes, vice president of investor relations of Marlborough, Mass.-based Sepracor (Nasdaq: SEPR) said during a Nov. 8 presentation in London. Tests have shown that it can help depressed patients, who have trouble sleeping. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December 2004.
Lunesta is a challenger to Sanofi-Aventis SA's Ambien. Ambien, with 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in sales last year, is the most-prescribed sleeping pill in the U.S. Lunesta, which Sepracor introduced in the United States in April last year, generated $329 million in its first nine months on the market, capturing more than 13 percent of the U.S. market for sleeping pills.
Sanofi is switching patients on to a newer version of the drug, known as Ambien CR, before the medicine loses patent protection next year. The French product held 45.2 percent of the U.S. sleep market at the end of September, compared with 44.7 percent at the end of June, Sanofi said Oct. 31.
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This person writes like me so I am not sure what he/she is trying to say. |
