More information on Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbott Labs's Cox-2 inhibitor Mobic from a 3/3 Wall Street Journal article:
A third major player is jumping into the multibillion-dollar arthritis-pain
wars.
Abbott Laboratories has acquired U.S. co-marketing rights to the drug Mobic,
one of a new class of highly promising pain medications known generally as
"Cox-2 inhibitors." Abbott will sell the drug along with its maker, Germany's
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH.
For the other companies in the arthritis-pain market, the presence of Abbott,
a powerful marketing force, will alter the competitive landscape when Mobic
enters the U.S. market later this year. Monsanto Co. and Pfizer Inc. already
are co-marketing the pain drug Celebrex, which is well on its way to becoming a
blockbuster. Merck & Co.'s Vioxx could jump into the market by next month.
For Abbott, the deal with Boehringer is a major departure, too, and is an
example of things to come. The venture reflects the more aggressive style of
its new chief executive, Miles D. White.
In interviews, Mr. White makes it clear that Abbott, which long shunned
pharmaceutical co-marketing deals and largely avoided mergers, now will be more
assertive in pursuing both. Apart from acquiring rights to Mobic in the current
deal, Abbott also will co-market the Boehringer hypertension drug Micardis,
also among a promising new class of drugs called angiotensin II receptor
blockers.
"It's true that we need more in our pharmaceutical pipeline, and we need to
find some other supplements to our product line," says Mr. White, who became
CEO Jan. 1. "It's fair to say that we will seek more, and I expect there will
be more" pharmaceutical marketing deals.
The Cox-2 drugs, so-called because they act on an enzyme called cyclooxygenas
e-2, represent a potential breakthrough in the treatment of arthritis. Wall
Street analysts say they will constitute a market of several billion dollars
soon. That is because they treat pain as well as current drugs but hold the
potential of doing so without causing severe gastrointestinal difficulties like
bleeding ulcers, as current arthritis drugs do in some patients.
Abbott and Boehringer Ingelheim will need to establish that their drug is as
good, or nearly as good, as Celebrex and Vioxx in avoiding stomach problems. No
head-to-head trials have been conducted, and J.P. Morgan analyst Carl Seiden
says that based on early data, Mobic may not be as effective at avoiding
gastrointestinal difficulties.
Sheldon Berkle, Boehringer Ingelheim executive vice president, says that "GI
abnormalities were significantly less for Mobic" than for older, existing
arthritis drugs in trials they have conducted.
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