All TOBI, all of the time

When PathoGenesis Corp. announced that it had taken a 20 percent equity stake in PulmoPharm GmbH, the deal might have been taken for a pipeline building play on the part of PGNS. Following the company's decision earlier this year to backburner rifalazil for tuberculosis, PGNS's only clinical programs are for additional indications of its TOBI tobramycin for inhalation, which has U.S. and Canadian approval to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in patients with cystic fibrosis.

However, earlier this year, Chairman, President and CEO Wilber Gantz vowed to press forward on the back of TOBI (see BioCentury, Jan. 18).And last week, PGNS said it was staying the course, with no plans to develop or co-develop PulmoPharm's branded generic, non-antibiotic respiratory products. According to PGNS, the equity purchase was made solely to provide capital for PulmoPharm to set up a team of 20 salespeople to exclusively distribute TOBI in Germany...