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Biotech / Medical : Sepracor-Looks very promising -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Icebrg who wrote (7343)	2/4/2004 1:49:19 PM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10280

UCB - Xyzal [UCB thinks about US and Xyzal. But Sepracor evidently has kept most of the patent rights. From a Reuters news report] PROFITS TO GROW Jacobs said net profits would grow by double-digit percentage terms this year. "It will be more than 10 percent, bottom-line," Jacobs said, adding that his forecast excluded the effect of a weaker dollar, which in 2003 sliced 92 million euros off ordinary profits. Jacobs also said UCB is still examining the potential of Efletirizine, a drug under development, and of European-approved Xyzal to secure the succession of its blockbuster flagship anti-histamine Zyrtec in the United States. Zyrtec loses its U.S. patent in 2007, and UCB's earnings are reliant on the drug. U.S. sales for Zyrtec rose 20 percent to $1.3 billion in 2003 even as the number of new prescriptions in the anti-histamine market fell due to over-the-counter competition. Jacobs said he was confident of getting patents to sell Xyzal in the United States, should UCB chose to do that. "We are confident about reaching an agreement with Sepracor (NasdaqNM:SEPR - News)," Jacobs said, referring to the U.S. company that holds most of the U.S. rights to Xyzal. European sales of Xyzal, the prescription successor to Zyrtec, which has lost most of its European patents, almost tripled to 41 million euros, and UCB expects sales to double in 2004. Xyzal helped to slow a decline in UCB's anti-histamine portfolio in Europe. UCB's pharma business contributed the bulk of profits, while its Surface Specialties division contributed 66 million euros to ordinary profits, higher than expected. Jacobs reiterated UCB could use that division as a "source of financing" to expand its pharma division. biz.yahoo.com