HAUSER LOSES B-MS TAXOL CONTRACT
Bristol-Myers Squibb has confirmed that it will not renew a supply contract for its Taxol (paclitaxel) anticancer drug with Hauser Chemical Research of Colorado, USA. Some analysts have described the move as "hardball negotiating tactics."
A spokesman for B-MS said that the company would not need the Pacific Yew bark ingredient harvested and processed by Hauser Chemical after August 15, 1994, when the existing contract expires. Two other companies are talking about some near-term and long-term Taxol-related projects. She noted that the company plans to make the drug from renewable biomass, using needles and twigs from yew varieties found in Europe and the Himalayas.
The company has licensed a semi-synthetic process to extract the core of this material and attach it to a synthesized molecule - semisynthetic Taxol is already being made at a plant in Ireland and the company plans to file for approval with the US Food and Drug Administration this year, added the spokesman.
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