TaiMed Biologics Inc’s (中裕新藥) sales of its Trogarzo HIV treatment are forecast to boom this year after the European Commission on Thursday last week approved it to be marketed, the company said yesterday.
The company plans to begin marketing the drug in Germany this year, as the nation has friendly regulations on drug pricing, allowing companies to market products before wholesale prices are finalized, TaiMed chief financial officer Jack Chen (陳怡成) said by telephone.
Company partner Montreal-based Theratechnologies Inc has begun making connections with hospitals and patients in Germany, targeting sales of the drug by the end of this year or at the beginning of next year, Chen said.
Theratechnologies — TaiMed’s exclusive marketing and distribution partner in more than 30 markets, including the US, Canada and the EU — is to negotiate prices with regulatory bodies in Europe, he said.
The European price has been estimated at 30 percent lower than US$118,000 for a year of treatment in the US, he said.
Trogarzo is a fourth-line treatment and a drug that is designed for people with multi-drug resistance, TaiMed said.
The number of people in Europe with HIV/AIDS who are multi-drug resistant, which means they require alternative treatments, is estimated to be between 20,000 and 25,000, Chen said.
TaiMed is to pay US$5 million to US-based Genentech Inc as a milestone payment, as Genentech developed and licensed the antibody ibalizumab (TMB-355), a key ingredient of Trogarzo.
TaiMed posted revenue of NT$283 million (US$9.12 million) in the first half of this year and expects its full-year revenue to reach NT$800 million thanks to stable sales of Trogarzo in the US, Chen said, adding that the company started marketing the drug in the US in April last year.
It reported a non-operating loss of NT$43 million in the first half, due to a drop in the value of its stake in Theratechnologies, Chen said.
Gross margin fell to 17 percent for the first six months due to low production yield at contract manufacturer WuXi Biologics Co (無錫生物製藥), which is responsible for the production of Trogarzo, Chen said, adding that the yield improved in the third quarter.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has retired from the company and stepped down from its board of directors just as the company is in the middle of trying to execute a turnaround plan. Intel chief financial officer David Zinsner and Intel Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus are serving as interim co-CEOs while the board searches for Gelsinger’s replacement, the company said in a statement. Frank Yeary, independent chair of the board of Intel, is to serve as interim executive chair, the company said. Gelsinger’s departure is hitting at a tumultuous time for the US chipmaker. Once the industry leader in
RSS