CELLTECH CHIROSCIENCE: Biotechnologist wins US clearance?

By Bertrand Benoit

?Celltech Chiroscience has become the first UK biotechnology company to obtain US marketing consent for a drug after its Chirocaine anaesthetic received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration yesterday. The drug, to be used in local surgical interventions, is the first treatment approved since the company was formed by the merger of Celltech and Chiroscience in June(1999). Analysts expect Chirocaine to generate peak sales of $162m-$200m (￡100m-￡123m). It will be marketed in the US by Purdue Pharma, a pharmaceutical company that will pay Celltech an undisclosed share of profits. Chirocaine, which has been approved in Sweden and is awaiting EU-wide clearance, will be marketed by Abbott International in Europe and Maruishi Pharmaceutical in Japan. Celltech Chiroscience said it would a leukaemia treatment for review in the US this autumn. CMA676, which works by targeting cancer cells more precisely than existing chemotherapy, will benefit from the six-month FDA review process reserved for cancer treatments. Nick Woolf, analyst at BancBoston Robertson & Stephens, said approval of CMA676, which is expected to generate peak sales of $178m-$250m, could help the company break even by the end of next year. Shares in Celltech Chiroscience rose 11p to 500p.(99/08/10)?