A drug from Sanofi in the hot seat
The prospects of a new drug from Sanofi darker. Marketed in France since October 2010, and reimbursed at 65%, the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia Multaq may no longer be reimbursed in France. The Ministry of Health will decide in coming weeks.
Following severe liver failure diagnosed in the Multaq users in Germany and the United States, the Transparency Commission launched a process of reassessment of the medical benefit (SMR) by this treatment and issued end April 1 project a negative opinion, according to La Tribune. If the final notice of this proceeding is unfavorable, the drug will logically be delisted.
Previously, however, a hearing requested by the laboratory of Sanofi will defend his product.Health authorities should also expect that the European authorities, leading in turn to a study on the risk-benefit ratio of Multaq, vote before taking sides.
The delisting in France of one of the few new drugs Sanofi – the Multaq is on the market two years – would lead to a sharp drop in sales. However, this treatment is not essential for laboratory, industry watchers nuance. "It is designed for uncommon diseases, its development and launch were complicated and it is unlikely, anyway, to become a blockbuster, that is to say a drug generating more than one billion in sales, "said one of them.In the first quarter of 2011, the Multaq reached 63 million euros in sales in 29 countries including the United States and key European states, Sanofi said.
Few new treatments
The laboratory has tricolor few new treatments to market quickly alongside Multaq. Its pipeline of only three drugs pending approval of marketing and a dozen products in phase 3, the last stage of clinical development. In addition, most of these treatments are not very innovative, because they are made from molecules that have been used by Sanofi. Chris Viehbacher, Director General of the sixth world laboratory, then put on activities other than drugs from traditional research.
Among the pillars of growth: emerging markets, animal health, self-medication, vaccines or diabetes.All areas which have contributed in 2010 more than half the turnover of the pharmaceutical group. Will be added in 2011, the potential of the U.S. biotech Genzyme acquired earlier this year.