Kos Pharmaceuticals gets $50 million boost

Kos Pharmaceuticals says that it has secured an additional $50 millionstandby credit facility from Michael Jaharis, its chairman and main shareholder, which will enable the company to complete its current R&D programs and launch its next-generation cholesterol-lowering drug, Nicostatin. The funding is in addition to previous facilities worth $80 million that Mr Jaharis has made available to the firm, and should be enough to help it reach cash break-even before launching Nicostatin.

Kos' chief executive, Daniel Bell, said the firm is "extremely fortunate" to have the backing of Mr Jaharis, not least because of "his keen understanding of the time and patience required to create a fully-integrated pharmaceutical company in today's markets." Mr Bell added that, because the firm is now less than six months from completing clinical development on the drug, "much of the financial burden associated with developing Nicostatin is behind us."

Kos said it will also be able to aggressively promote its current range of products: Niaspan (niacin), which was recently approved in the USA for the elevation of protective high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in patients with dyslipidemia (Marketletter November 8, 1999); Knoll Pharmaceutical's antihypertensive Mavik (trandolapril); and Tarka (trandolapril/extended-release verapamil), which Kos co-markets.