Wyeth To Bolster Drug Development In Japan, Eliminate Drug Lag (Japan)
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Wyeth is taking steps to strengthen its drug-development activities in Japan in order to eliminate the problem of "drug lag" by conducting clinical trials simultaneously in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. Wyeth would then be able to release drugs earlier in Japan, enabling it to better generate maximum revenues before patents expire. The pharmaceutical firm currently has five drugs under review in Japan including 16 compounds in Phase I trials, which entered into Phase I trials in Japan an average of only 26 days after trials began in Europe and North America. This marks a dramatic increase from earlier efforts such as the successor to Prevnar, the company's vaccine against the bacteria that cause pneumococcal disease, which only recently moved into Phase II trials in Japan despite already advancing to Phase III trials in the West. The drug is not expected to debut in Japan until around 2013-2014, compared to around 2010 in the West. (Click here for more - May Require Paid Subscription