Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Watch

12 November 2001 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

APPLIED BIOSYSTEMS Group, an Applera Corp. business, has acquired Boston Probes Inc., a private firm focused on development of peptide nucleic acid probe technology, for $32.8 million in cash.

BIOMARIN Pharmaceutical Inc. and Genzyme General have filed for US and European marketing approval for the orphan drug Aldurazyme (laronidase), an enzyme replacement therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis I (MPS I). Biomarin also completed the acquisition of the pharmaceutical assets of Ibex Technologies Inc., for $10.5 million, including enzyme products Neutralase and Phenylase, with all but $2 million payable in shares of BioMarin common stock.

BRISTOL-MEYERS SQUIBB Co. (BMS) has received FDA approval for fluoroquinolone antibiotic, Tequin (gatifloxacin), for short-course (five-day) regimen treatment of acute bacterial exacerbation of chronic bronchitis. BMS and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have filed with FDA for the next-generation schizophrenia drug aripiprazole.

GENZYME GENERAL Corp., together with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, have sued Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., claiming its Replagal drug infringes a patent associated with Genzyme's Fabrazyme. Genzyme is seeking to block Replagal from being launched in the US. A trial is set for the first quarter of 2002.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE has received FDA approval for the beta-blocker Coreg (carvedilol) to treat severe heart failure.

PALADIN Labs Inc. has acquired Canadian rights to Rogitine (phentolamine mesylate injection) from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., effective January 2002. The drug posted 2000 sales of $500 million.

PFIZER Inc.'s Zithromax (azithromycin) has been recommended for approval by FDA as single-dose treatment for pediatric ear infections.

SEROLOGICALS Corp. has agreed to acquire The Intergen Co., a biopharmaceutical firm with a Toronto, Canada, manufacturing facility, for $45 million in cash.

UCB-BIOPRODUCTS has broken ground on a pilot customer application laboratory to increase synthetic peptide pilot production by 50 percent. UCB-Bioproducts currently offers one of the largest capacities available globally for peptide APIs. The North Augusta, S.C.-based cGMP facility will expand UCB-Bioproducts capacity for clinical and commercial supply with 10,000 square feet, expected to be operational by the end of 2002.

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