Subject: Genentech Expects Protropin Hormone Will Be a Best Seller
Date: Published: 11/22/91 (54 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Genentech Expects
    Protropin Hormone
    Will Be a Best Seller

    SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.  -- Genentech Inc. said it
 expects 1991 sales of its growth hormone Protropin to surpass
 sales of its former flagship product, the heart drug
 Activase.
    "We expect Activase to sell about $180 million, and
 Protropin to be a little in excess of that," said Kirk Raab,
 president and chief executive officer of the biotechnology
 company.
    Mr. Raab declined to comment on widely variable profit
 forecasts by securities analysts of $48 million to $62
 million, or 43 cents to 55 cents a share.  Last year the
 company had a loss of $98 million, or $1.05 a share, because
 of charges related to its merger with Roche Holding Ltd.
    Mr. Raab said he expects 1991 revenue to rise about 10%
 from last year's $476.1 million -- indicating 1991 revenue
 approaching $524 million.
    The executive said that the role reversal in the company's
 number one and two products is anticipated because demand for
 growth hormone is increasing, while price competition has
 measurably crimped sales its heart drug Activase.
    Activase has been steadily losing its share of the market
 for heart attack drugs because of recent studies suggesting
 that a much older and cheaper agent, streptokinase by Astra
 Pharmaceutical Products Inc., is just as good, and costs just
 one-seventh of Activase's $2,000 price tag.  Once in command
 of about two-thirds of the market for thrombolytic, or
 clot-busting, drugs, Activase now commands "about 50% of the
 market," Mr. Raab said in an interview.
    Mr. Raab said Genentech is upbeat about a variety of
 recent regulatory signals from the Food and Drug
 Administration, especially its renewed commitment to a
 "fast-track" for drugs to treat life-threatening conditions.
 This affects a number of products now in the company's
 pipeline, he said.
    Mr. Raab also confirmed Genentech's renewed commitment and
 investment in AIDS vaccine development.  He added the company
 so far has seen "no safety problems" in tests of its vaccine
 as a treatment for boosting the immune system of people who
 are already infected with the AIDS virus.  That trial, which
 should yield results in the first half of 1992, will be
 followed by tests of the vaccine's effectiveness in the 1992
 second half.

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