Elan once-daily nifedipine
Executive Summary
Bayer's U.S. subsidiary, Miles Inc., will have exclusive U.S. marketing rights to Elan's sustained-release formulation of the calcium channel blocker under an agreement announced Oct. 17. Bayer was the discoverer of nifedipine and initially licensed U.S. rights to the product to Pfizer, which markets the drug as Procardia. Miles launched its own version of nifedipine as Adalat in 1986. Once approved, the Miles/Elan product will compete with Pfizer's recently launched once-a-day product Procardia XL. Elan filed an NDA in the U.S. for its once-a-day formulation on July 31.