Advancis checks its pulse
About a year to the day since going public, drug delivery company Advancis Pharmaceutical Corp. lost its anchor partner in GlaxoSmithKline plc and more than 60% of its market value. AVNC is now hoping investors will wait until the first half of 2005 for data from its Phase III trial of a pulsatile once daily formulation of amoxicillin for proof that AVNC's Pulsys technology is commercially viable.
AVNC and GSK (LSE:GSK; GSK, London, U.K.) were developing a Pulsys version of the pharma company's Augmentin amoxicillin/clavulanate antibiotic. While GSK did not say exactly why it ended the 2003 deal to use Pulsys for internal development programs, AVNC President and CEO Edward Rudnic said the decision was not due to scientific or clinical issues related to the Pulsys technology. Augmentin went generic in 2003. ...