Sankyo increases Cygnus milestone payments to $25M

Nasdaq-listed Sankyo Pharma, a subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceuticalmajor Sankyo, has announced that it will make further milestone payments of $15 million to Cygnus. The move will bring total payments to Cygnus, relating to marketing and distribution rights for the glucose monitoring device GlucoWatch Biographer in the USA, to some $25 million.

The new financial arrangement will see Sankyo commit to: doubling the size of its speciality sales force to 100 representatives; devoting additional managed-care resources to support reimbursement activities; managing the distribution for speciality distributors and retail channels; and assuming responsibility for expenditures and marketing programs.

During November 2001, Sankyo Pharma and Cygnus announced a co-promotion agreement under the terms of which the former would be largely responsible for promoting GlucoWatch Biographer to health-care professionals, while for its part Cygnus would take charge of marketing, distribution and customer service. Cygnus also takes responsibility for R&D, regulatory and clinical activities.