Word: humulin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...every new product immediately finds a big market. In July, Eli Lilly began U.S. commercial production of synthetic human insulin. The drug, Humulin, has about the same effects as conventional insulin and costs just as much or more (about 50? a dose). Nonetheless, Eli Lilly still has hopes for major sales...
What Genentech has done is to develop the first insulin drug that is made with a synthetic duplicate of human genes. Called Humulin, it differs from insulin products now on the market, all of which are made from cells extracted from animals, particularly cattle. Humulin can be used to treat the approximately 8% of the world's 70 million diabetics (including 10.3 million in the U.S.) who are allergic to the animal product and have previously had to seek more complex treatments with other drugs like steroids...
...Humulin represents only a small advance for an American industry that has produced scant profits for its backers and worldwide sales of just $25 million. Another form of human insulin, made conventionally through chemical processes by Denmark's Novo Industri, has been on the market in Great Britain since June. Though Humulin's cost will decline as production runs increase, it will initially be twice as expensive as animal-based insulin and its eventual market is limited, no more than $20 million...
...Since Humulin has been licensed to giant Eli Lilly & Co. for production and sale as a nonprescription drug, Genentech stands to make at most 10% of any profits. Says Analyst Marilyn Hill of Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Mass.: "Royalties and fees are not going to make these companies a big success. Genentech still has to show that it can develop its marketing clout with its own products." Investors apparently agree. Although Genentech's stock ran up from $33 a share to $46 in the weeks preceding the announcement, it is well below the fantastic $89 it briefly...
Still, gene splicing shows promise of living up to most of the extravagant claims made by its supporters, who expect it to reap sales of $25 billion by the year 2000. One of the most encouraging signs is the quick action by the FDA, which licensed Humulin after just five months of testing, one of the quickest approvals in the agency's history. Genentech President Robert Swanson said last week that his company expects to market a number of other new products in the next few years, including an agent that dissolves blood clots and could be useful...