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November 14, 2007

Alexion aims to grow European market for drug Soliris

SMITHFIELD -- Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is ramping up its European operations, a critical part of its strategy to grow the small market for the company's only drug, Soliris. The medication is used to treat a rare blood disease, paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH.

In a presentation yesterday at the Credit Suisse Healthcare Conference, in Phoenix, Alexion's chief executive officer, Leonard Bell, said the company plans to launch Soliris in Germany and England by the end of the year.

Alexion, based in Cheshire, Conn., has spent nearly $80 million renovating the former Dow Chemical plant in Smithfield. Construction is complete and "validation runs" are expected to begin next year, Bell said today.

"We're building a global business," Bell said in remarks broadcast online. "So far, we've done well."

Alexion has opened a European headquarters in France and a "financial hub" in Switzerland, Bell said.

Though few Americans have been diagnosed with PNH, Alexion expects to become profitable through the high cost of the drug: about $389,000 for a year's supply.

In the U.S., the unusually high price is permitted because of the drug's "orphan" status, through a law that rewards drug companies for finding cures to rare diseases. In European countries, Bell said, Alexion expects the drug's price to differ from the U.S. price by no more than 15 percent.

More than 100 patients in Europe are taking Soliris as part of clinical trails, but they do not pay for the drug. "We have an increasing focus on the European operations," Bell said. "It's been a pretty productive year so far."

Sales of the drug rose to $21.8 million in the third quarter of the year, up from $9.8 million in the previous three months, according to the company. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in March, and Alexion began selling it in the United States the following month.

-- Journal staff writer Benjamin N. Gedan

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 12:01 PM | Permalink

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