LONDON ¿ One of the leaders among the quoted UK biotechnology companies, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc saw its share price fall by #2.70 to #7.12 in three days last week after it disclosed a two-year delay in the launch of its lead product, and the ending of a development collaboration with Boehringer Mannheim.

PowderJect, of Oxford, England, specializes in needleless injection of powdered drugs. Gordon Saul, vice president of business development, told BioWorld International the decision to delay Lidocaine would enable the anaesthetic to be launched in the pediatric market first, commanding a premium price.

¿The regulators are very excited about the product and felt there would be a lot of off-label use in pediatrics,¿ he said. ¿As a result they were already asking us for substantial pediatric data in a first filing.¿

Saul said it was a hard decision to delay the product, but going for pediatric use would double the market and enable PowderJect to command a higher price. ¿Our market research told us,¿ he said, ¿that if we launched in the adult market first, it would be hard to get the kind of pricing we want, and it would also then be difficult to get premium pricing for pediatrics.¿

PowderJect¿s partner, Celltech Chiroscience plc, agreed with the planned delay, and potential marketing partners are also enthusiastic, the company said. Lidocaine has completed Phase II trials in adult and pediatric use, showing that a single product could be used in both markets.

The company is to have further discussions with regulators before finalizing the protocols for Phase III trials, and does not expect these to start before 2001. On its current plan the company expected to become profitable in 2002. This will now be delayed by two years.

The collaboration with Germany-based Boehringer Mannheim for the administration of an undisclosed protein using the PowderJect system has been dropped following Boehringer¿s takeover by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., of Basel, Switzerland. Rights and data have reverted to PowderJect.

Saul said it had not yet been decided whether to look for another partner. ¿We are actively assessing that. The molecule in question has good characteristics which sit well with our technology, and it is a large market,¿ he said. ¿On the other hand there are a lot of applications for our technology and we do not have unlimited resources.¿

PowderJect has more than #70 million (US$113 million) in cash. It also has a number of partnerships, including one with Glaxo Wellcome for the development of DNA vaccines, and said it is on target to achieve the objective of covering a significant proportion of costs through revenue from development partners by March 2002.