LOHMANN THERAPY SYSTEMS ESTABLISHING U.S. HABITROL PLANT
Executive Summary
LOHMANN THERAPY SYSTEMS ESTABLISHING U.S. HABITROL PLANT to manufacture the nicotine patch for North American markets. The German firm licenses the transdermal smoking cessation product to Ciba-Geigy worldwide. LTS purchased a manufacturing facility in West Caldwell, N.J. this spring; the firm estimates that it will be operational in approximately two years following reconfiguration and regulatory approvals. Ciba-Geigy has reported sales of Habitrol of nearly $350 mil. after about six months on the market in the U.S. The patches are currently produced at LTS' Neuwied, Germany facility. LTS noted that the U.S. expansion will not alleviate current supply shortages for the nicotine patches but is instead part of a longer-term plan for the company to develop a full U.S. operation. LTS' fledgling U.S. business is headed by Rainer Hoffmann, the former president of Boehringer Mannheim Pharmaceuticals. Hoffmann also is a past president of Knoll. He left Boehringer Mannheim in May 1991 and was succeeded by former Beecham President Ted Wood ("The Pink Sheet" Dec. 23, 1991, T&G-6). Reporting to Hoffmann are: VP-Plant Operations Salvatore Fascetta, a former Knoll exec; Engineering and Technical Services Manager Francis DeMarinis, a former Becton Dickinson exec; and Regulatory Affairs Manager Michael Garrett. LTS was formed in 1984 by the German wound care and adhesives company Lohmann GmbH. LTS focuses on the development of human therapeutic systems, mainly transdermals, but also is developing veterinary, agricultural and cosmetic systems. In addition to Habitrol, LTS is the developer and manufacturer of the Deponit transdermal nitroglycerin patch marketed by Schwarz Pharma Kremers-Urban. LTS has approximately 400 employees, including 65 in R&D, and claims almost 100 development projects.
You may also be interested in...
Part D Discount Liability Coming Into Focus: CMS Releases Drug Cost Data
Newly released Medicare Part D data sheds light on the sales hit that branded pharmaceutical manufacturers will face when the coverage gap discount program gets under way in 2011
FDA Skin Infections Guidance Spurs Debate On Endpoint Relevance
FDA appears headed for a showdown with clinicians and the pharmaceutical industry over the proposed new clinical trial endpoints for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, the guidance's approach for justifying a non-inferiority margin and proposed changes in the types of patients that should be enrolled in trials
Shire Hopes To Sow Future Deals With $50M Venture Fund
Specialty drug maker Shire has quietly begun scouting deals with a brand-new $50 million venture fund, the latest of several in-house investment arms to launch with their parent company's pipelines, not profits, as the measure of their worth