Spain’s Zeltia says that it has started selling its newly-approved anti-cancer drug Yondelis in the UK and Germany, the first two markets where the treatment for soft tissue sarcoma will be sold.
Zeltia’s PharmaMar unit won approval for Yondelis (trabectedin) from the European Union in September and the green light was the first of marine origin and resulting from Spanish research. It has hired IDIS as distributor for the UK market while for the rest of Europe, PharmaMar is to distribute the drug in other European markets through a network it has established with Innovex, part of the Quintiles group.
For Sandinavian and Eastern European countries, PharmaMar has a distribution deal with Swedish Orphan Internacional and in Greece and Cyprus has an agreement with Genesis Pharma. Zeltia chairman Jose Maria Fernandez Sousa recently said that the company is targeting 100 million euros in sales from Yondelis in this indication but this should rise to 300 million euros if it is approved for use in the treatment of ovarian cancer next year.
PharmaMar recently began an international Phase II clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Yondelis in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
