Belgian pharmaceutical group UCB will jointly promote its hay fever drug Xyzal in the US with French counterpart Sanofi-Aventis, the Belgian company said on Monday.
Xyzal is UCB's successor to its blockbuster hay fever drug Zyrtec, which will lose patent protection in the United States at the end of 2007.
UCB said Sanofi-Aventis would book the sales of the drug in the United States and make an upfront payment to UCB and further milestone payments related to regulatory approvals and sales.
"Profits will be shared between Sanofi-Aventis and UCB," UCB said in a statement.
Sanofi has long experience of selling allergy medicines in the United States, where its hay fever drug Allegra was a blockbuster before it ran into generic competition last year.
Industry analysts say UCB has been relatively successful in switching patients to Xyzal from Zyrtec in Europe, where the older drug already faces generic competition, even though Xyzal (levocetirizine) has a "ahem" very similar clinical profile to Zyrtec (cetirizine).
UCB have been in the news recently: they are reportedly buying Schwarz Pharma.
Reuters Health
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