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Vernalis Gives Partnering a Second Chance

Vernalis has bought back rights to its Frova migraine treatment in North America from Elan, agreeing to pay $55 million over the next two years. Frova, sold there by Elan and UCB, had failed to reach even the most modest sales expectations. Now Vernalis plans to re-partner the drug, hoping a label-extension to menstrual-associated migraine lands it significantly better terms than its original 1998 deal with Elan. But Vernalis needs to raise money to complete the buyout, and the dynamics of the US migraine market suggest that until it can differentiate the drug on the basis of the MAM label, a huge primary care sales force would be necessary to gain a respectable share of the market.

When Pfizer Inc. launched the seventh triptan migraine therapy into the US market in February 2003, it did so with a bang. The Big Pharma rolled out eletriptan (Relpax) under the considerable steam of 6,000 sales reps, aiming to take a bite out of market-dominating sumatriptan (Imitrex) from GlaxoSmithKline PLC . Barely noticed was the flagging progress of the sixth entrant, frovatriptan (Frova), launched in late 2002 and sold by Elan Corp. PLC , which focused on neurologists, and UCB Pharma SA , the US affiliate of Belgian conglomerate UCB Group 's UCB SA , which details primary care physicians (PCPs). [See Deal](See Exhibit 1.)

While Elan had managed to capture a respectable 7% market share among neurologists, these doctors write only 1% of total...

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