Lilly seeks US approval for osteoporosis drug

8 January 2001

Eli Lilly has filed for approval in the USA to market Forteo(recombinant parathyroid hormone), its investigational drug for osteoporosis. The company is initially seeking approval to market the drug for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

In trials, Forteo reduced the risk of new vertebral fractures in older women with osteoporosis by about 65%, compared with a risk reduction of 47% with Merck & Co's bisphosphonate Fosamax (alendronate) which is currently the best-selling osteoporosis drug in the USA. Analysts at Credit Suisse First Boston have predicted that Forteo's peak sales could reach $700 million a year, and the drug is seen as one of Lilly's key new products as it guards against the loss of patent protection on its best-selling antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine).

Meanwhile, Robert Hazlett at Robertson Stephens has issued a report on the prospects for Lilly's sepsis drug Zovant (activated protein C) after seeing an abstract of the first pivotal clinical data on the product.

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