Word: bayer
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...even as demand soared, controversy erupted in the U.S. over the steep price of Cipro, which sells under different names across Europe. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said negotiations were underway with Bayer to relax its patent on Cipro; the company wouldn?t comment. No wonder: a month?s supply of Cipro retails for a steep $350 in the U.S., while the generic version in India costs about $10. The Cipro patent has expired in Germany but will run until December...
Thompson promised last week that the U.S. wouldn?t violate Bayer?s patent, though lawyers say the federal government has the authority to do so. Bayer sells its drug to the government for about $1.50 a dose, about one-third of the usual wholesale price. The Bush Administration has announced plans to spend $643 million increasing the nation?s drug stockpile, not only of Cipro, whose active ingredient is ciprofloxacin, but also of two other anthrax fighters, penicillin and doxycycline. Though they are much cheaper than Cipro, they are not as effective against genetically engineered anthrax...
Cipro was introduced in 1987 as a broad-spectrum antibiotic useful in combatting urinary tract and respiratory infections. With $1.4 billion in sales last year, Cipro is Bayer?s biggest-selling drug. As the anthrax scare spread in the U.S., Bayer?s shares bounced up about 45%. But analysts caution that the anthrax fears will produce only a short-term benefit for Bayer. "We think that the upside from Cipro is full-priced into the share price," Deutsche Bank said in an e-mail to its clients last week...
Another reason for caution is the continuing concern over Lipobay, Bayer?s cholesterol-lowering medication. The company estimated that its withdrawal from sale could cost up to $704 million in lost profits this year. "Lipobay was the cornerstone of Bayer?s profitability, and its withdrawal has dramatic consequences for earnings now and in the future," said Guy Phillips, an analyst with the French bank BNP Paribas in London. Worse still, German prosecutors launched an investigation into whether Bayer withdrew Lipobay quickly enough after the medication was linked to those 52 fatalities...
...addition, negligence lawsuits filed in the U.S. could end up costing as much as $5 billion, Bayer says, and some analysts put the figure even higher. "We have been surprised by the reaction of the financial markets regarding the possible consequences of claims for damages," said Manfred Schneider, Bayer?s chief executive, "since we believe the chances for the success of such litigation are overrated." As for other drugs, Bayer has a new impotency pill and an antibiotic in the pipeline, but they will not start producing revenue until late next year...