Abbott/Adria Oncology Products

Executive Summary

Abbott will market Adria's entire line of multi-source oncology products, including Adriamycin, Adrucil and Folex, to hospitals, wholesalers, and home health care agencies under an agreement announced Nov. 16. Adria, a division of Erbamont, will continue to sell the products to oncology clinics, physicians offices, and oncology wholesalers. Adria hopes to take advantage of Abbott's large sales force to protect Adriamycin (doxorubicin HCl) from generic competition from Bristol-Myers Squibb's Rubex and Cetus-Ben Venue's Doxorubicin HCl. A press release issued by the two companies calls Abbott the U.S. "market leader in multi-source hospital injectable products." The two companies also announced that they "have agreed to jointly develop drug delivery systems for the reconstitution and delivery of chemotherapeutic agents." Adria indicated that the two companies would work to modify existing Abbott drug delivery systems (especially the ADD-Vantage I.V. system) to suit Adria's oncology products.