Recently in Allergy Drugs Category

LONDON (Reuters) - SkyePharma (SKP.L) said on Wednesday that developing its biggest drug hope, Flutiform for asthma, was costing more than it expected and that it had arranged a new 35 million pound loan.

The drug delivery firm also said it was in exclusive talks with a potential buyer of its loss-making injectable drugs business and that it expected to reach a deal shortly.

SkyePharma has been hit by a string of delays in finding partners for its drugs and earlier this year a shareholder rebellion drove out founder and chairman Ian Gowrie-Smith.

A new Danish drug giant is flourishing in Hørsholm after ALK-Abelló has launched its allergy tablets, Grazax, on its first market. It is predicted that the company will develop the sale to surpass Lundbeck’s present turnover. Consequently, the shares are up by 37.5 per cent in two days and it has made the shareholders wealthier by approximately DKK 3.2 billion.

“I estimate that the sale in Europe may reach DKK 4.5 billion within a number of years and that sale in the USA may yield just as much,” says share analyst Henrik Simonsen at the investment bank SEB Enskilda, which does not wish to guess the what the shares will end at.

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Drug group Evolutec collapsed Monday after it said its rEV131 hay fever treatment performed no better than a placebo.

“No significant differences were observed between rEV131 and placebo in the phase IIb trial in allergic rhinitis and the primary endpoint was therefore not met,” it said in a statement.

“This is tremendously disappointing for Evolutec and its shareholders,” said chief executive Mark Carnegie Brown.

China Biopharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc., a leading Chinese pharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing and marketing of innovative drugs in China, today announced the completion of all required clinical trials for Desloratadine tablets for seasonal allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever. The trials were conducted in six hospitals throughout China. The trial results have been sent to the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for manufacturing and marketing approval. The Company anticipates an approval response from the SFDA in the second half of 2007.

Desloratadine is indicated for the relief of the nasal and non-nasal symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis. It is also indicated for the symptomatic relief of pruritus and the reduction in the number of hives, and size of hives, in patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria. In China, 30% of the population has suffered from an allergy at least once. The $1.5 billion allergy drug market in China continues to grow at a rate of 15% per year.

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of Espicom Business Intelligence’s New Drug Futures: Respiratory Chapter to their offering.

This chapter of New Drug Futures evaluates, compares and contrasts the prospects for the compounds that will revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry over the next 5 years and beyond in the respiratory sector. The report includes unique sales forecasts by major product.

The Respiratory market is the fourth largest therapeutic category by sales and generated nearly US$32.4 billion (+8% YoY) in 2005. Sales grew steadily in the US, which accounted for around 54% of global respiratory sales, driven by growth in Advair, GlaxoSmithKline's leading combination therapy for the treatment of asthma/COPD and Merck's Singulair for the treatment of asthma and allergic rhinitis. Sales in Europe are now growing steadily; around 5% following the uptake of new treatments such as Symbicort (AstraZeneca) and Alvesco (Altana/sanofi-aventis) which have yet to be approved in the US markets.

New research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine suggests that certain inhaled asthma medications – as well as similar chemicals our bodies produce during times of high stress – may worsen diseases such as asthma , heart failure and lupus that involve inflammation.

The scientific team led by Raymond Penn, Ph.D., and Matthew Loza, Ph.D, found that beta-agonists, such as those used in the treatment of asthma, increase the accumulation of type 2 T cells, a type of white blood cell that participates in immune system defense mechanisms. In certain diseases such as asthma and lupus, an over-reactive type 2 T cell response occurs and is believed to contribute to the disease.

“Inhaled beta-agonists are very effective in opening up airways and allowing asthmatics to breathe, but their ability to address the underlying inflammation that causes most asthma has been debated for years,” said Penn, an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Center for Human Genomics.

The asthma drug AstraZeneca Plc. plans to bring to the United States next year could be just what the doctor ordered for the pharmaceutical giant as it works to rebuild a drug development pipeline hamstrung by the termination of several once-promising prospects.

In mid-2007, AstraZeneca, whose U.S. headquarters is in Fairfax and which employs about 5,000 statewide, plans to roll out Symbicort.

Symbicort is an asthma inhaler that combines two drugs to treat both the swelling of the airways and constriction of the muscles around the airways.