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DewDiligence

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DewDiligence

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Wednesday, 10/19/2005 10:17:31 PM

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 10:17:31 PM

Post# of 253566
Abbott says Tricor combo drug could be big seller

[This could be another reason to be less than bullish about KOSP.]

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh45031_2005-10-19_16-26-51_n19....

>>
Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:26 PM ET
By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc. ( ABT ) on Wednesday said an experimental product pairing its popular Tricor medicine with another drug to control cholesterol could post annual sales in the billions of dollars within five years.

Tricor, which had third-quarter sales of $225 million, is used to cut levels of bloodstream fats called triglycerides and is one of Abbott's best-selling products. Jeffrey Leiden, president of Abbott's pharmaceuticals division, told analysts in a conference call the new product will combine Tricor in a "fixed-dose combination" with a member of the widely used statin class of cholesterol fighters.

Leiden said two separate Abbott trials are testing Tricor in combination with different statins and that clinical data from the studies will become available early next year.

He declined to identify the statins. The best-selling and most potent ones are Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor and Merck & Co.'s Zocor.

Statins sharply cut the body's production of "bad" LDL cholesterol, while slightly raising levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.

If approved, Leiden said, the new combination product would likely improve all three major categories of blood fats -- controlling triglycerides, cutting LDL cholesterol and raising HDL cholesterol.

"It could be a best-in-class drug" by hitting all three targets, he said.

He said the product, if launched by 2008, would debut about the time Pfizer is expected to launch a much anticipated combination drug that pairs Lipitor with Pfizer's torcetrapib, an experimental drug that significantly raises HDL cholesterol.

Pfizer has said its new combination product, if approved, could generate annual revenue as great as Lipitor, now the world's biggest medicine with annual sales approaching $12 billion.

The U.S. patent on Zocor is expected to lapse next year. That would free drugmakers to sell generic forms of the Merck medicine and include such generics in experimental combination products.

Abbott markets Tricor in the United States for Belgian drug and chemical company Solvay SA.

Shares of Abbott, which reported lower third-quarter earnings earlier on Wednesday, were up 63 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $43.03 in midday trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
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