Roche pulls out of a diabetes drug alliance with Ipsen
Swiss drugmaker Roche has dropped development of diabetes treatment taspoglutide, ending its partnership with French drugmaker Ipsen and pushing Ipsen's shares as much as 4 percent lower.
Ipsen said on Wednesday it would thoroughly assess the available data on the drug to see if it can be developed with another partner as it would be too costly to develop the drug, once seen to have $2 billion sales potential, on its own.
The announcement came at Ipsen's 2010 sales presentation. Fourth-quarter sales rose 1.1 percent to 258 million euros ($360 million), leaving full-year sales up 6.5 percent to 1.03 billion. They were up 5.1 percent in constant currency terms.
Source: Reuters
