Eon crashes the party

When SangStat Medical Corp.'s SangCya cyclosporine liquid solution was approved in 1998, the primary issue was how the product would fare against Novartis AG's Neoral cyclosporine capsules. Coupled with subsequent legal action by NOVN against both SANG and the FDA, it was easy to overlook a third issue - additional competitors - which reared its head last week with the approval of Eon Labs Manufacturing Inc.'s generic cyclosporine capsules.

Eon's pill will cost $164.89 for 30 100 mg pills, which the company said is a 10 percent discount to the average wholesale price of Neoral. Frank Della Fera, vice president of sales and marketing at Eon, argued that the price and appearance of Eon's generic will convert Neoral users. ...