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ABT - Vicodin CR

Abbott Fires Sales Force Ready to Market Long-Acting Vicodin

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4bbHzvAySTg&refer=home#

By Tom Randall

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Abbott Laboratories fired 200 sales representatives preparing to market a new abuse-resistant pain pill after the company stopped plans to introduce the drug this year, people familiar with the matter said.

The drugmaker said in October that the drug, an extended release form of Vicodin, failed to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. The company hasn’t released details of the so-called complete response letter from the FDA.

Vicodin is in a class of powerful pain medications under scrutiny by U.S. regulators and doctors because of increasing abuse rates and a fear the drugs may lose their effectiveness when given over a long period of time. Abbott said its extended release form, Vicodin CR, would be the first in the hydrocodone class of narcotics to provide relief for 12 hours. Other hydrocodone drugs sell for less than $1 a dose and must be taken every four to six hours.

“We’re looking at a path to bring Vicodin CR to market but do not anticipate a launch in 2009,” said Laureen Cassidy, a spokeswoman for Abbott. “Based on the delay in the market availability of Vicodin CR, Abbott is reducing the number of staff supporting our pain-care business.”

If approved, the drug may face skepticism from insurers, who would be reluctant to pay for a more expensive version of a drug that has had generic competition for years, said Tony Butler, an analyst with Barclays Capital in New York.

‘Modest Sales’

“They don’t care how many pills you take,” Butler said in an interview yesterday. “We projected modest numbers even at peak sales. We wouldn’t have thought sales would be much more than a couple hundred million dollars a year,” he said.

The move may benefit King Pharmaceuticals Inc., which bought Alpharma Inc. for $1.3 billion in December, gaining one of a half-dozen companies racing to sell the first long-acting painkillers modified to deter potentially fatal misuse. By buying Alpharma and investing in its own pain drugs, King has positioned itself to lead a market that Ian Sanderson, an analyst at Cowen & Co., has predicted may reach $3 billion by 2015.

Purdue Pharma LP, maker of OxyContin, also is working to develop painkillers that are resistant to abuse.

Abbott rose 34 cents to $54.39 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. The company has declined 2 percent in the last 12 months, outperforming the Standard & Poor’s 500 Health Care Index, which fell 19 percent.