IVAX And Teva On The Heels Of Taxol And Zovirax

Last week saw two important developments in the generics industry. TevaPharmaceuticals of Israel announced that it had received "tentative" approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a generic version of Glaxo Wellcome's antiviral Zovirax (acyclovir). And in the same week, IVAX Corp, and its partner NaPro BioTherapeutics, announced that it had submitted a New Drug Application to the FDA for Paxene, its formulation of Bristol-Myers Squibb's anticancer agent Taxol (paclitaxel).

The patent protecting GW's Zovirax in the USA expires on April 22, at which point Teva will be free to market acyclovir capsules 200mg, if full approval is received. Zovirax capsules currently have annual US market sales of some $140 million.

GW was keen to point out that it also has a cream and an intravenous formulation of Zovirax, and that US sales in 1996 for all products in the range were L313 million ($507 million), with worldwide sales of L812 million ($1.3 billion). It added that the market for Zovirax is growing in Japan, up 9% last year to L195 million. This is GW's second-largest market for Zovirax, and in Japan the patents do not expire until 1999/2000, depending on the indication.