Powderject flops, thanks to Viagra

By MALCOLM WITHERS
Updated:

 

Impotence treatment Alprostadil will be dropped by Powderject after the worldwide success of Viagra led to flagging sales.

Despite predictions that Alprostadil, a non-oral treatment, would account for 30% of the $1bn (£692m) impotence-treatment market, Powderject chief executive Paul Drayson said today that it had decided to suspend investment.

The saved resources would be used for its other drug delivery and pharmaceutical products, he said. Powderject's flu vaccine Fluvirin reached the US market six weeks ahead of its rivals.

Sales leapt in America - where 15m doses have been sold and forecasts are that it will be worth $350m a year by 2004 - and in Britain, where sales of 3.8m doses have pushed income above the last flu season's £28.6m.

Following the acquisition of Evans in October, sales of Powderject's vaccines have increased to £21.9m in the two months, up from the 1999 figure of £14.5m.

The number of employees has been reduced by 14% to 640.

In the six months to September Powderject's losses increased to £11m from £7.7m. Turnover was up to £3.1m from £1.2m. The shares added 1 1/2p to 566 1/2p.

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