Shares in Panion & BF Biotech Inc (寶齡富錦), which makes pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and consumer healthcare products, edged up 0.95 percent yesterday, bucking the TAIEX’s 0.29 percent fall, one day after the company gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell its new kidney drug Nephoxil.
The company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday night that it might start selling Nephoxil in Taiwan in the second half of the year.
The drug, which treats elevated serum phosphate levels from chronic kidney disease, has already earned the firm royalties from partners in Japan, Europe and the US.
Panion & BF’s estimated sales for this year might rise to NT$1.53 billion, jumping 51.13 percent from an estimated revenue of NT$1.02 billion (US$32.39 million) for the whole of last year, First Capital Management Inc (第一金證券投顧) said in a client note yesterday.
The forecast suggests a big improvement in terms of earnings per share from NT$1.14 last year to NT$8.22 this year, based on estimated sales of US$530 million generated in the US market, US$330 million in Europe and US$28 million in Japan, First Capital said.
Japan Tobacco Inc and subsidiary Torii Pharmaceutical Co began sales of Nephoxil in Japan in May last year, after the kidney drug was certified by Japanese authorities in January last year. The Japanese partners earlier said that sales of Nephoxil (sold under the trade name Riona in Japan) would hit ￥1.2 billion (US$10.3 million) a year. Torii has priced Nephoxil at ￥99.8 per 250mg tablet and an average patient needs between 3g and 6g of the treatment each day.
In 2012, Japan had 312,000 patients on dialysis, the second most worldwide, Panion & BF said, adding that about 80 percent of patients have high phosphate levels.
In the US, Panion & BF has authorized Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc to market the new drug. The US partner received a new drug license from the US Food and Drug Administration in September last year, with Nephoxil (sold as Auryxia) hitting the US market on Dec. 22 last year, according to the Taiwanese firm.
Panion & BF said the drug is still under review in Europe, and it has entered a joint venture with China-based Shandong Weigao Pharmaceutical Co (山東威高藥業) to provide kidney disease treatments in China aided by Nephoxil. Nephoxil sales might start in China in four years, according to First Capital.
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