Nordic to market Taiho anticancer in Europe
This article was originally published in Scrip
The privately owned Nordic Group is to exclusively commercialise and market Taiho Pharmaceutical's oral anticancer Teysuno in the EU and other selected European markets following the recent approval of the fluoropyrimidine drug.
The deal, financial details of which were not disclosed, will also see the transfer of the EU marketing authorisation to Nordic, although the Japanese firm retains an option to participate in the commercialisation of the product.
Teysuno was approved by the EMA in March for first-line use in combination with cisplatin in adults with advanced gastric cancer. The product combines the 5-fluorouracil prodrug tegafur with gimeracil and oteracil, which prevent the breakdown of 5-FU and reduce its activity in normal tissue, reducing dosing and side-effects.
It has been available in Japan (as TS-1) since 1999 and is also approved in several other Asian markets including China, and Taiho will make its data and experience with the product "immediately and seamlessly" available to the partnership.
Taiho, the specialist oncology subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings, has limited commercial capabilities in Europe and said that Nordic would handle the product through a new oncology business unit.
The group, which operates through its Nordic Drugs and Nordic Pharma arms in the prescription drugs sector, has commercial offices throughout Scandinavia and Europe and some existing presence in cancer products.