UPDATE 1-Merck & Co wins EU agency support for antipsychotic

Fri Jun 25, 2010 6:18am EDT

* Asenapine recommended for bipolar manic episodes

* EMA move follows U.S. approval of drug last August

(Adds detail on drug, background)

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Merck & Co's (MRK.N) antipsychotic drug asenapine has been recommended for use by the European Medicines Agency as a treatment of manic episodes in bipolar disorder, the London-based watchdog said on Friday.

Recommendations for marketing approval by the agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) are normally endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months.

The drug, which has the brand name Sycrest in Europe and Saphris in North America, was approved by U.S. regulators last August for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

It was originally developed by Dutch group Organon, part of Akzo Nobel (AKZO.AS), before that business was bought by Schering-Plough. Schering has itself now been acquired by Merck.

Asenapine will compete with established treatments for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, including Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) Risperdal, Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMY.N) Abilify, Eli Lilly's (LLY.N) Zyprexa and AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) Seroquel.

Schering said before its merger with Merck that sales of the medicine could exceed $1 billion a year. Organon had, at one stage, been developing the drug with Pfizer (PFE.N) but Pfizer abandoned it in 2006 because of commercial considerations. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Dan Lalor)

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Comments (1)
Segoya wrote:
Why do they use a cute word like “Austerity” so they dont have to say that all the European welfare state programs that the people have come to rely on, which pacified them enough to live in sufficating socialist bearacracy have been slashed, right now here in chicago they are trying to get people back on welfare, back in housing and back on the dole, what would pull europe out of this mess, if they didnt need a permit to take a leak, all these countries arent even sovereign anymore, european states dont have the liberty of American states, the european union is a sham, the EU is a funneling mechanism, Our prez is a marxist, we are stuck with him, the best we can do is start growing our own food, calling our rep at the drop of a hat and voting out every incumbent till we get ones who uphold our constitutional rights. School your kids at home as well, disconnect from their system it wont be long before they start calling us kulaks. These people never give up on failed eugenics ideas.

Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life, Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day then with austerity measures you give him on polluted shrimp and tax him for it, tax him for its carbon footprint its carbon legacy and have a meeting in a city that costs a billion dollars so you can discuss with other people over carbon neutral food paid for by the tax payer how to get the poor sap to take the shrimp tail and like it, and pay for it with worthless paper money for eternity.

Sounds to me like socialism and capitalism cancel each other out, good thing we are a constitutional republic and not a democracy

Jun 26, 2010 5:02am EDT  --  Report as abuse
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