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Bayer mulls Cipro help
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October 18, 2001: 1:07 p.m. ET
The drugmaker considers outsourcing anthrax drug amid growing demand.
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NEW YORK (CNNmoney) - Bayer AG may seek help from competing drug companies to make more of the anthrax antibiotic Cipro to keep up with swelling demand, the German drugmaker said Thursday.
Bayer so far has been able to meet the skyrocketing demand for the drug since anthrax cases began appearing in the United States after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But with each day bringing fresh reports of new contaminations, Bayer soon may be overwhelmed.
For the latest on the anthrax investigation, click here
Bayer would not be more specific about the options it is exploring for Cipro, which Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control, says is the antibiotic of choice for treating anthrax cases.
Bayer said Tuesday it had begun to more than triple its production of Cipro, also known as ciprofloxacin, and is running its factories 24 hours a day, seven days a week to produce 200 million Cipro tablets in the next three months. Bayer also plans to bring a mothballed production plant in Germany back online.
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The FBI said anthrax-contaminated letters were sent to Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and NBC anchor Tom Brokaw in these envelopes. | |
Currently, there is enough Cipro on hand to treat 2 million people for two months, health officials say.
When asked Thursday about Bayer production, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher told CNN, "We believe that we have the ability to increase the amount of Cipro to at least the amount that will allow us to treat 12 million people for 60 days, and we don't necessarily believe that we will have to do that, because we can use other drugs. But we do need to get the companies to cooperate, and my understanding is that they are cooperating."
Two other antibiotics also have been approved for anthrax treatment: doxycycline and penicillin. Both are available in generic form.
Politicians are urging federal health authorities to relax Bayer's patent on Cipro so generic drugmakers can produce the drug as well. Bayer's U.S. patent expires at the end of 2003, and several generic manufacturers have received tentative regulatory approval to market their versions, according to newspaper reports.
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Bayer expects the run on Cipro to generate sales of $450 million and it could not come at a better time for the Leverkusen, Germany-based drugmaker. Two months ago, manufacturing problems forced it to reduce distribution of a blood-clotting treatment and Bayer had to recall its cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol after it was associated with 52 deaths.
Bayer also makes the well known aspirin that bears its name, as well as
One-a-Day vitamins, chemicals and other products. 
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