Marketing Deal For Cephalon Drugs

Cephalon has signed an agreement with Dompe SpA to market, sell anddistribute its Provigil (modafinil) tablets and Myotrophin (mecasermin) injection in Italy. Dompe, which will assume all commercial responsibilities for the products in Italy, employs 600 staff and has annual revenues of more than $150 million. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Provigil, a treatment for daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy, was recently launched in the UK and Cephalon has signed a development and marketing agreement for Japan with Nippon Shoji Kaisha. Marketing rights for the treatment were acquired from the French company Laboratoire Lafon, which sells the drug in France.

Cephalon and its partner Chiron are developing Myotrophin, for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neuromuscular disorders, and this latest news is welcome after the companies' recent difficulties in getting approval for the injectable product from the US Food and Drug Administration (Marketletter May 18). Myotrophin is also being presently developed in Japan in collaboration with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo.