Washington Memo

No 3, April 21, 1997

Newsbriefs

Mifepristone Rights Transferred

Even as the controversial drug mifepristone, better known as RU486, moves closer to introduction in the United States, its original manufacturer has permanently disassociated itself from the compound. On April 8, the German pharmaceutical giant, Hoechst AG, announced that it was transferring all rights, including the patent, at no cost to Edouard Sakiz, the recently retired chair of Hoechst's subsidiary, the French company Roussel Uclaf, which originally developed the drug.

The move by Hoechst is being attributed by antiabortion groups as the response to their boycott of the firm's new allergy medication, Allegra. Although Hoechst had divested itself of all U.S. distribution rights to mifepristone two years ago, it continued to market the drug in France, Sweden and the U.K.. Sakiz plans to introduce mifepristone in several other countries that had been denied by Hoechst, as well as make it more available for research purposes. He stated that he expects his one-product company, Exelgyn, to be less vulnerable to consumer pressure.

In the meantime, after encountering numerous obstacles to approval and use in the U.S. during its decade-long odyssey, mifepristone may soon become available here. In 1995, shortly after Hoechst granted to the Population Council all distribution rights for the U.S., a small nonprofit organization, Advances in Health Technology, was created to find a company to manufacture and distribute the drug. Last fall, its first licensee, Joseph Pike, was sued for fraud by the Population Council and forced to with draw. A new manufacturer has reportedly been identified, and plans appear to be back on track for the distribution of mifepristone to health care providers late this year. --LK

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