Fri, Oct 19, 2001 page24

• Bayer may get Cipro headache before it's over

  DRUG BUSINESS Sales of the sought-after antibiotic are skyrocketing, but satisfying explosive demand may overshadow any short-term benefit

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Its pharmaceutical business has been reeling from a major drug recall, a plant shutdown and disappointments in drug research.

  Now, Bayer AG would finally seem to be blessed with the most hotly desired drug in the US: Cipro, the drug of choice for treating inhalation anthrax.

  But satisfying the explosive demand has created its own problems. And the company is trying to fend off politicians' calls that other drug makers be allowed to begin producing their own versions of the drug so supplies could be quickly increased in case of future attacks.

  

  Alfredo Carapia, a pharmacist at Farmacias Nacional in Juarez, Mexico, displays the brands of the antibiotic Cipro, used to treat anthrax. As anthrax exposures continue to be reported in the US, anxious Americans are heading to pharmacies in Mexico, where antibiotics can be acquired cheaply and without a prescription.

  PHOTO: AP

  But Bayer, the German pharmaceutical and chemical company, argued Wednesday that there was no need for the US government to override its patents and buy the drug from companies that produce it without its approval.

  Bayer refused to make its top executives available for comment. But a spokesman at Bayer's headquarters in Leverkusen, Michael Diehl, said: "We understand that the American government has to make sure that it has the supply it needs. But we are sure we can fulfill all the needs that the government has presented us so far."

  However, as anxiety over anthrax grew Wednesday, Bayer executives also hinted that they would be willing to enlist rival manufacturers to increase production if the need arose.

  "We are looking at all possibilities," Diehl said.

  On Tuesday, Bayer hastily announced plans to triple its normal production and produce 200 million tablets within three months.

  But much of that production will not begin until Nov. 1, the company says, because an idle German factory will need to be restarted.

  Frank L. Douglas, chief scientific officer at Aventis Pharma, the pharmaceutical arm of Aventis SA, explained the delay by saying that a company has to provide the Food and Drug Administration considerable documentation on the production process.

  Bayer's exclusive US patent rights to Cipro last until late 2003. Bayer executives would not say how much Cipro they had in stock, though they said it was enough to meet normal demand through the end of the year.

  But other companies said they could produce extra supplies if the government asked them. Bayer officials were reluctant to comment about proposals by Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat, New York, to invoke a law that would allow the government to buy Cipro from other suppliers.

  Cipro has been Bayer's biggest-selling drug for several years.

  It is mostly used to fight infections like urinary tract disorders and infections that arise after surgery. Sales of Cipro totaled about US$1.6 billion last year, and about two-thirds of that was in the US.

  Bayer executives and industry analysts said the company was not likely to get rich from the anthrax alarm.

  It is charging the US government less than half the normal retail price for the drug -- about US$1.83 per tablet, compared with a normal price of about US$4.40.

  Stewart Adkins, a pharmaceutical analyst at Lehman Brothers in London, estimated that if Bayer received the usual price, it would generate US$100 million in additional sales for every 500,000 people taking Cipro to fight anthrax.

  Bayer executives said Wednesday that any increase in Cipro sales would not come close to offsetting the sales Bayer lost this year when it was forced to recall an extremely profitable cholesterol-lowering drug, sold under the names Baycol and Lipobay, because of side effects linked to 52 deaths. Sales had been expected to reach US$890 million this year.

  Bayer has been one of the pharmaceutical industry's weakest players.

  Though it remains famous as the creator of aspirin, it has been overshadowed for years by much bigger rivals like Pfizer, Merck and Aventis. Today, it is only the 15th-biggest pharmaceutical company, and analysts note that it has few blockbuster drugs on the horizon.

  Bayer's profitability has declined significantly this year. Its stock fell so sharply on the Frankfurt exchange after the company recalled Baycol that Bayer was forced to postpone plans to list its shares in the US in September. But since the anthrax scare, the stock has risen. Over all, Bayer has sales of more than US$30 billion.
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