Innovex to promote Yondelis in western Europe

Innovex, a pharmaceutical outsourcing company, has signed a services agreement with PharmaMar, a subsidiary of Spain's Zeltia SA, to recruit, train and deploy a specialized oncology sales team in western Europe to promote Yondelis (trabectedin), an anticancer drug of marine origin. PharmaMar, which holds authorization, will be responsible for marketing the drug.

Innovex will initially deploy regional unit heads and key account managers in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy to promote Yondelis. The project will be coordinated across these countries by PharmaMar and an Innovex European project director. The UK-based firm, a unit of the USA's Quintiles Transnational Corp, is a leading global commercial solutions provider to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. "Innovex' proven ability to build and launch sales forces across a multi- country region was a key factor in PharmaMar's selecting us to build its sales network for Yondelis in Western Europe," said Hywel Evans, global president, Innovex.