NEW YORK: A pharmaceutical company and a well-known biotech company
are reaching out to the PR industry with RFPs to help raise awareness of
a certified blockbuster drug and a potential blockbuster cancer-fighting
drug, respectively.
Tap Pharmaceuticals, a collaboration between Takeda Chemicals and Abbott
Laboratories, is looking for an agency to represent its gastrointestinal
drug Prevacid. Prevacid had $2.2 billion in sales during 2000,
totaling 73% of Tap's total sales. The amount of the RFP was not
disclosed, but was said to be substantial.
Genentech, one of the first biotech companies, has also issued an RFP
for its cancer-fighting pill Tarceva. The drug just recently entered
phase three of its clinical trial, and is not expected to be available
for use by cancer patients until 2004-2005.
The Tarceva drug is a joint venture between Genentech, Roche, and OSI
Pharmaceuticals based in Melville, NY.
