Wait 'til next year. It's a way of life for Chicago Cubs fans, and in 2003, it applied to a couple of fledgling Tar Heel drug companies that were supposed to start cashing in big.
Durham-based Trimeris won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in March for its breakthrough AIDS drug, Fuzeon. The drug prevents the AIDS virus from infecting healthy cells. Trimeris launched it amid projections of 10,000 customers and $70 million in sales by year's end. But the cost of the drug--more than $20,000 a year per patient--and patients' aversion to the twice-daily shots it requires combined to weaken demand and cut those projections by at least 50%. Trimeris shares tumbled. In mid-December, the stock was trading below $20 per share, less than half its 52-week high.
Another Tar Heel drug maker, Durham-based Inspire Pharmaceuticals, was expecting FDA approval for its first compound, diquafosol tetrasodium, before the end of 2003. Diquafosol treats dry-eye disease, which Inspire says affects 10 million Americans. It spent the second half of the year gearing up to begin marketing diquafosol with its partner, California-based Allergan. But just before Christmas, the FDA asked for another study, which could delay marketing until 2005.
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Chapel Hill-based Pozen also got some bad news. The FDA rejected its MT 300 migraine treatment, which was expected to go on the market this year, because it doesn't relieve nausea and sensitivity to light and sound, common complaints for migraine sufferers. Pozen is challenging the ruling and hopes for approval of its second migraine treatment, MT 100. Analysts estimate MT 100 could generate annual sales of $500 million, 10 times MT 300's potential. The company hopes to begin sales this year
The state's largest contract-research organizations have already started cashing in, though one had an off year. Durham-based Quintiles Transnational went private in September after it was bought for $1.7 billion by a group led by company chairman and founder Dennis Gillings. Through three quarters of 2003, it had earned $38 million, down 64% from the same stretch of 2002. Wilmington-based Pharmaceutical Product Development reported $62.8 million in net income through three quarters, compared with $19.9 million for the same period of 2002. Wilmington-based aaiPharma had net income of $24 million through three quarters, compared with $10 million for the same period in 2002.
The state's life-science startups hope to have better luck finding venture capital in 2004 than they did in 2003. Venture capitalists invested about $55 million in North Carolina-based biotechs through the first three quarters, down 40% from the same period of 2002. In fact, venture capitalists contributed less to the industry than Golden LEAF, a nonprofit set up to distribute half the state's proceeds from the national tobacco settlement. In August, it set aside $60 million to train workers to make vaccines, drugs and other products.
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N.C. EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES (drug manufacturing) 1998 2000 2002 Employers 59 74 83 Employment 17,920 18,429 20,588 Total wages (millions) $989.6 $1,219.9 $1,434.3 Average weekly wage $1,061.97 $1,272.92 $1,339.77 Source: Employment Security Commission TOP BIOTECHNOLOGY EMPLOYERS COMPANY/N.C. LOCATION N.C. EMPLOYEES GlaxoSmithKline, RTP and Zebulon 6,000 Bayer, RTP and Clayton 1,600 Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Sanford 1,000 Syngenta Crop Protection, Greensboro 700 bioMerieux, Durham 600 Diosynth, RTP 595 BASF, RTP 450 Becton Dickinson Technologies, RTP 430 Novozymes North America, Franklinton 400 Bayer CropScience, RTP 375 Novo Nordisk North America, Clayton 300 Syngenta Biotechnology, RTP 250 Paradigm Genetics, RTP 195 Source: companies, 2003 TOP BIOTECHNOLOGY LOCATIONS COMPANIES COMPANIES Durham 35 Charlotte 3 RTP 26 High Point 3 Raleigh 24 Cary 2 Morrisville 11 Clayton 2 Winston-Salem 10 Wilmington 2 Greensboro 9 Other 11 Chapel Hill 6 NORTH CAROLINA 144 Source: North Carolina Biotechnology Center, 2003 N.C. RETAIL PHARMACIES TYPE Chain 995 Independent 578 Health care 375 Other 190 CHAIN STORES CVS 262 Eckerd 248 Wal-Mart 101 Kerr Drug 94 Kmart 43 Winn-Dixie 43 Bi-Lo 41 Walgreens 39 Target 28 Harris Teeter 27 Other 69 Source: N.C. Board of Pharmacy, 2003 TOP RESEARCH/TESTING EMPLOYERS COMPANY/N.C. LOCATION N.C. EMPLOYEES Laboratory Corporation of America, Burlington 4,815 Research Triangle Institute, RTP 2,300 Pharmaceutical Product Development, Wilmington 2,100 DSM Catalytica Pharmaceuticals, Greenville 1,200 Quintiles Transnational, Durham 1,000 Duke Clinical Research Institutes, Durham 855 aaiPharma, Wilmington 675 Inveresk Research, Cary 580 Cardinal Health, Morrisville 400 PharmaResearch, Wilmington 350 Family Health International, Durham 280 Parexel International, Durham 250 Source: companies, 2003
FOR MORE INFORMATION
North Carolina Biotechnology Center; Box 13547, 15 T.W. Alexander Drive, RTP, NC 27709; (919) 541-9366
