Madrid, 30 October 2009: Yondelis® (trabectedin), a drug produced by biotechnology company PharmaMar, which is part of the Zeltia Group (ZEL.MC), has been granted the Prix
Galien Spain Award 2009 for "Best Pharmaceutical Product of the Year", one of two awards presented annually by the Elsevier group in recognition of excellence and commitment on the part of public and private institutions for the benefit of research and health.
The "Best Pharmaceutical Product of the Year" award acknowledges the effort involved in researching, developing and commercialising a new drug, and its benefits for patients' health. The award distinguishes Yondelis® as the most outstanding pharmaceutical product of 2009.
The award ceremony, attended by close to 400 representatives of institutions and companies in the area of research, was presided over by José Martínez Olmos, Health
General Secretary at Spain's Ministry of Health and Social Policy.
Alfonso Casal, PharmaMar's Head of Marketing and Sales, collected the award. He expressed his gratitude for the award and noted that "PharmaMar and the Zeltia Group have made a clear commitment to society, both in Spain and worldwide, by focusing on knowledge generation, innovation, and research and development in priority areas for the future, placing particular emphasis on finding solutions to pathologies for which there is no satisfactory treatment, such as cancer", and that "this commitment has been fulfilled with the commercialisation of Yondelis®, the first antitumour drug of marine origin".
On 25 September, Yondelis® received a positive opinion for the treatment of relapsed platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer from the EMEA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) and it is pending ratification of permission for commercialisation, which is expected by the end of 2009.
Since the end of 2007, Yondelis® has been approved for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma in 46 countries.
About PharmaMar
PharmaMar, a biotechnology company in the Zeltia Group (ZEL.MC), is the world leader in the discovery and development of anticancer drugs obtained from the sea. Yondelis® is Spain's first anti-cancer drug. It is currently being sold in several countries in the European for the treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma. In September 2009, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) at the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) issued a positive opinion in which it recommended that authorisation be granted to commercialise Yondelis® (trabectedin) administered with Caelyx® (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin) for treating platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer patients. Yondelis® is also undergoing Phase II trials on prostate, breast and paediatric cancers. PharmaMar
has four other new compounds in clinical development. Clinical trials are under way with Aplidin®, Irvalec®, Zalypsis® and PM01183. PharmaMar also has a rich pipeline of pre-clinical candidates and a major R&D programme.
About Yondelis
Yondelis® is a new antitumour agent that was originally derived from the Caribbean tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata. The compound is now produced synthetically. Yondelis® binds to the minor groove of DNA, interfering with cell division and genetic transcription and the DNA repair mechanism. Under a licensing agreement with PharmaMar SA, Centocor Ortho Biotech Products, LP has global marketing rights for trabectedin, except in Europe (where the product is marketed by PharmaMar SA as YONDELIS®) and in Japan (where PharmaMar SA and Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., LTD. have a licensing agreement to develop and market Yondelis®)”.
For more information:
Media relations (Tel. +34 91 846 60 00)
Fernando Mugarza
Carlos Martínez de la Serna
Carolina Lanzas Otazu