Novo Nordisk's US Launch Plans For Norditropin

Novo Nordisk plans to launch its Norditropin human growth hormone in theUSA this year, Novo Health Care Division director Lars Rebien Soerenson has told Reuters. However, he added, "due to competitive considerations, we have decided at this stage not to say just when or how we will enter the US market."

At the end of December, the US Court of Appeal reversed a previous injunction by a lower court in an ongoing litigation patent case with Genentech; the reversal now allows Novo to market its product in the USA. After the US Food and Drug Administration approved Novo's Norditropin in 1995, Genentech filed a complicated suit to keep the product off the American market (Marketletters passim).

"In principle, the legal obstacles to our launching the product in the USA have been cleared out of the way," Mr Soerenson said, and "we are now involved in the more practical preparations for the launch; it will have a limited but positive effect on our American earnings, but we don't see it revolutionizing our US turnover."