Allergy Drugs: December 2006 Archives

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.