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In early 1997, the pharmaceutical firm Eisai, Inc., Teaneck, began selling its first major drug - Aricept(R) - for the treatment of mild-tomoderate Alzheimer’s disease. The company, a subsidiary of Eisai Co., Ltd. of Japan, has been growing rapidly along the way, holding the distinction of becoming the fourth fastest company in any industry to pass the $1 billion mark in sales. Besides Aricept (which is copromoted with Pfizer), Eisai, Inc.’s product line includes the Janssen Pharmaceutica co-promoted Aciphex(R) (a proton pump inhibitor that suppresses acid production in the stomach) and Cerebyx(R), an anticonvulsive medicine co-promoted with Pfizer.

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As testamant to Eisai’s growth, last year it increased its sales force by a whopping 60 percent and currently has approximately 398 sales representatives throughout the United States. Its total U.S. employment is approximately 850 and “still growing,” according to Ed Broughton, senior vice president, business development.
He believes the company’s success has largely been linked to its human health care (hhc) philosophy, in which, he says, the company has “always sought to target patient needs and to try to satisfy them with good, innovative products.”
Speaking about Alzheimer’s disease, Brougton adds that it was very high on the list of unmet needs and major health care problems. “The research was tailored to really address those needs and once products had come out of the lab and were starting to be tested on people, that’s when we could see that there was really something special here - that these products could do well and help a lot of people. That’s guided the company’s success ever since.”
As for partnering with other pharmaceutical companies, Broughton explains that as Eisai became aware of how good its products were, it devised the partnering strategy to bring them to market and to get information to health care providers and patients the best way possible.
“[Pfizer] was a natural choice to partner with for Aricept,” he says, “which was really going to be the first practical treatment for Alzheimer’s disease patients. We saw it as a way to combine our research with the tremendous resources and reputation of Pfizer.”
He adds that Aricept has about a 60 percent market share, bringing in approximately $750 million in sales. Aciphex, (again, co-promoted with Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc.), brings in nearly $1 billion in sales with approximately 10 percent market share.
“The difference, of course,” he says, “being the size of the markets. Aciphex competes in the GI (gastrointestinal) market . . . which is huge, and Aricept competes in a much smaller market. Alzheimer’s disease, although it is a tremendous health care problem, is a developing market.”
Broughton thinks the future is “very bright” for Eisai in the United States, adding that the U.S. portion of the company has grown to the point where it is more than 40 percent of worldwide sales for its parent.
He says, “We have a rich pipeline of products that we are bringing forward ourselves and those products are mainly in the areas of oncology and neurology.”
* Daiichi Pharmaceutical Corporation, Montvale, receives FDA approval for a once-daily, seven-day dosing regimen of FLOXIN(R) Otic 0.3 percent, a topical antibiotic agent for treating what is known as “Swimmer’s Ear” in patients six months of age and older.
* Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bridgewater, pledges $2 million to Somerset Medical Center Foundation’s Breaking New Ground campaign. The contribution (the largest single corporate gift to Somerset Medical Center) will be used to expand breast health services at the Somerville center. In recognition of the, contribution, the center’s Breast Care Program will be renamed The Aventis Breast Care Program at Somerset Medical Center.
Copyright New Jersey Business & Industry Association May 01, 2004
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