Denmark's Novo May Drop Osteoporosis Drug, Newsletter Says
Bloomberg News
August 17, 1998, 5:20 a.m. ET
Copenhagen, Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- There's a
''significant'' risk that Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark's largest
drugmaker, may have to drop development of its most ambitious
and promising product, a new drug for the treatment of
osteoporosis known as Levormeloxifene, said newsletter Mandag
Morgen, citing unidentified Danish analysts. The analysts
estimate that there's a 70 to 80 percent risk that Novo will have
to stop development of the drug, on which the company has spent
600 million to 1.2 billion kroner ($87 million to $175 million),
after clinical phase-two tests showed that the drug causes an
unexplainable thickening of the wall of the womb, the newsletter
said. Mandag Morgen also said Novo's sales of the oral diabetes
drug Prandin in the U.S. are poor compared with Rezulin, a
competing drug from Warner-Lambert Co. of the U.S.
No one at Novo Nordisk was immediately available for
comment. The company's shares were unchanged at 895 kroner.
(Mandag Morgen 8/17, 7, www.Monday.dk)
--David Bentow in the Copenhagen bureau (45) 33 32 21 21/ph |
