P&G to co-promote sleep drug

Procter & Gamble has entered into a co-promotion deal with the speciality drugs company Somaxon Pharmaceuticals for the newly approved insomnia drug Silenor (doxepin), which is designed for patients whose difficulty lies mainly in sleep maintenance.

The deal, which runs through the end of 2012, calls for the two companies to co-promote the drug through a combined sales force of 215 US reps. The P&G sales reps will focus on promoting to targeted primary care and other high-prescribing physicians, while the Somaxon reps will concentrate their efforts on specialists and other top-decile physicians who treat insomnia. P&G will also promote Silenor to targeted pharmacies and will provide supplemental managed care support services for the drug.

In all, the efforts will target 35,000 of the highest prescribers of insomnia products as well as 25,000 pharmacies.

In return for its services, P&G will be paid a combination of fixed fees and a royalty based on US net sales. Each company will pay for maintaining its own sales force, with Somaxon being responsible for all other costs pertaining to the commercialisation of Silenor.

In addition, P&G has gained a right of first negotiation relating to rights to develop and market Silenor as an over-the-counter medication in the US.

Silenor, which works by binding to histamine receptors, won US Food and Drug Administration approval in March for the treatment of both short-term and chronic insomnia in adult and elderly patients.