Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8623

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Cullen A.
Glaxo Buys Rights to Over-the-Counter Roche Diet Pill
Bloomberg.com 2007 Feb 20
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aSoGD9J4MCDY&refer=healthcare

Full text:

GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Europe’s largest drugmaker, bought rights to sell Swiss rival Roche Holding AG’s Xenical diet pill without a prescription, betting the over-the-counter version will attract new users in Europe.

Glaxo will probably seek regulators’ permission to sell the drug in the European Union and other ``key international markets’‘ this year, the London-based company said in an e- mailed statement today. The deal excludes the U.S. and Japan.

The U.K. drugmaker this month won permission to sell a weaker form of Xenical in the U.S. under the name Alli. Glaxo is trying to offer a version of the drug that is easier to use for those who want to lose weight without consulting a doctor. The medicine works by blocking the absorption of fat in the gut.

Xenical was the first weight-loss pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration without a doctor’s note as regulators try to tackle a growing public-health problem.

About two-thirds of Americans are overweight, including a third who are obese, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The trend is the same in Europe, where the number of obese has increased between 10 percent and 40 percent in a decade.

Drug Dispute Settled

``We now have brands dedicated to addressing two of the world’s major health issues: smoking and obesity,’‘ John Clarke, who heads Glaxo’s consumer healthcare unit, said in the statement. The company also makes Nicorette smoking gum and Nicoderm patches.

The introduction of the over-the-counter version comes as rival drugmakers including Sanofi-Aventis SA, Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. develop new medicines for people whose weight puts them at risk of diabetes and heart disease. Paris-based Sanofi’s Acomplia, on sale in Europe since last July, has been delayed in the U.S. as regulators take more time to complete their review.

Separately, Glaxo and Roche agreed to settle a dispute on the licensing and marketing of the heart drug carvedilol. Roche will pay Glaxo an unspecified amount as part of the settlement, and it will get a payment from Glaxo for the Xenical license, according to the statement.

To contact the reporters on this story: Angela Cullen in Frankfurt at acullen8@bloomberg.net