American Home, Monsanto to Have Edge in Arthritis Drugs
Bloomberg News
June 1, 1998, 6:08 p.m. ET
American Home, Monsanto to Have Edge in Arthritis Drugs
Madison, New Jersey, June 1 (Bloomberg) -- American Home
Products Corp. and Monsanto Co. could have an edge in treating
arthritis after their $35 billion merger, announced today, as the
aging of U.S. population makes that condition more common.
Some 40 million Americans have a form of arthritis and that
number could jump to almost 60 million in the first two decades
of the next century, according to a report from the National
Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. It
could afflict almost 20 percent of the U.S. population by the
year 2020.
Monsanto is expected to be the first drugmaker to introduce
a new kind of medicine to treat the pain of arthritis without
irritating the stomach. American Home already has experience in
selling arthritis drugs, such as Naprelen and Lodine. The two
companies said they agreed to merge in a stock swap.
''Together, they will have a nice little franchise in
arthritis,'' said Cynthia Beach, an analyst with Gerard Klauer
Mattison & Co., who has a ''hold'' rating on American Home.
Monsanto's drug, Celebra, is expected to be the first of a
type of drugs known as a Cox-2 inhibitors that analysts estimate
could have $1 billion in annual sales eventually. Merck & Co.
also is developing one of these drugs.
Celebra was one of the attractions for American Home, said
Hemant Shah, an independent drug analyst.
''They've got to come up with huge drugs to keep (profits
growing) and American Home doesn't have one,'' said Shah.
The company created by the merger of American Home and
Monsanto might have a second arthritis drug to sell in 1999.
American Home has an agreement to sell Enbrel, a drug for
rheumatoid arthritis developed by Immunex Corp. American Home
also owns 54 percent of Immunex, a Seattle-based biotechnology.
Already, osteoarthritis -- or arthritis caused by a
degeneration of the joints generally caused by time or injury --
is the second most frequent malady after heart disease causing
long absences from work, the government report said.
Rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory disorder that occurs
when the body's immune system attacks its own bones and tissues
causing inflammation, affects about 1 percent of all Americans,
and afflicts women more often than men, the report found.
--Kerry Dooley in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4016/dd |
