Yamanouchi reinforces US future with GSK deal

Japanese pharma company Yamanouchi has struck a deal to co-market its forthcoming overactive bladder treatment with GlaxoSmithKline in the US.

The deal to market the product, Vesicare, builds on the companies' longstanding and successful European marketing partnership to promote another urology brand, the benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment Flomax.

Vesicare will become the first product marketed by US subsidiary Yamanouchi Pharma America, with the Japanese company saying that the agreement with GSK would accelerate preparations for the drug's launch and support its entry into the market.

For GSK, the deal represents another opportunity to add to its late stage product development pipeline, which investors have complained is worryingly thin.

An estimated 17-20 million people suffer from an overactive bladder in the US and Vesicare is forecast to reach peak year sales of $400 million.

The drug was submitted to the FDA for approval in December 2002, and a similar filing was made in Europe in January 2003.

Established in April 2002, Yamanouchi Pharma America is currently setting up its own urology sales network to meet its aim of becoming a lead player in the US urology market.