LEO PHARMA LAUNCHES IN AUSTRALIA WITH FOUR $100k SCHOLARSHIPS
November 24th 2011 23:57
Thursday November 24, 2011
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LEO PHARMA
Leo Pharma will establish a presence in Australia to market its products, educate doctors and patients and will fund four $100,000 dermatology scholarships a year.
Leo Pharma’s chief executive officer Gitte Aabo told Biotech Daily that in 2009 the Denmark-based dermatology company launched a strategy “to be more than a north European company and to be an international company”.
Ms Aabo said that two parts to the strategy were entering the US market and the $348 million acquisition of the Brisbane-based Peplin with its PEP005 (ingenol mebutate) topical gel for actinic keratosis and other precancerous lesions (BD: Sep 3, Nov 12, 2009).
Ms Aabo said the Australian launch of Leo Pharma meant the company would give effect to her company’s “ambition to go beyond products of high quality with bringing information, knowledge and support to patients”.
Leo Pharma Australia’s general manager Dr Peter Welburn said the company would provide a range of services include support for patient information programs through dermatologists, general practitioners and pharmacies, along with nurses to assist patients and sponsor information websites such as www.knowyourownskin.com.
Both Ms Aabo and Dr Welburn stressed the need for greater information about serious skin conditions for patients and doctors.
Ms Aabo said Leo Pharma had no cosmetic products, only pharmaceutical compounds for a range of skin conditions.
She said Leo had ointments and gels for psoriasis, such as Daivobet as well as the Fucidin antibiotic for skin infections and atopic dermatitis.
She said Leo Pharma filed its application for PEP005, to be known as Picato, to the US Food and Drug Administration in March 2011 and expected approval in January 2012, with a launch in the US by April 2012.
Ms Aabo said the company had also filed applications in Europe, Australia and Brazil.
She said the phase III trial had a 58-day follow-up and the FDA required a 12-month safety follow-up.
Ms Aabo said there were no serious adverse events associated with PEP005.
Mr Welburn said that although the PEP005 application was only for actinic keratosis, doctors could use it for other conditions and the company had completed a 60-patient phase II trial and was currently running a larger trial in Australia.
“Our focus is to be the most advanced company in dermatology,” Dr Welburn said.
“Our mission in Leo is to help people achieve healthy skin.”
Ms Aabo said the company would host dermatology seminars and encourage doctors to avail themselves of Federal Government grants for tele-medicine, facilitating consultations for patients in remote and rural Australia.
The Australian launch in Melbourne was supported by Denmark’s Prince Frederik and Princess Mary who were present at the launch of the first Australian-Danish dermatology research collaboration today with four $100,000, three-year, Leo Foundation Scholarships for Dermatology Research to fund Ph D students to conduct research projects in dermatology at the University of Queensland and the University of Copenhagen.
A Leo Pharma media release said Australia was thought to be the skin cancer capital of the world with two in three people diagnosed with skin cancer by the time they were 70 years and Denmark also had one of the highest recorded incidences of skin cancer.
Leo Pharma said the scholarships were supported by the Leo Foundation, established in 1984 to ensure the company’s long-term survival as a research-based organization.
“By paving the way for new, innovative treatment opportunities, the scholarship can help us improve people’s quality of life,” Ms Aabo said.
To read all these articles in full, subscribe to Biotech Daily at the link above or at www.biotechdaily.com.au
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