A group of biotechnology executives and the investmentbanking firm D. Blech & Co. have established TriGenix Inc. toprovide sales, marketing and reimbursement services to thebiopharmaceutical industry.

TriGenix said it will offer a package of services to take productsfrom Phase III clinical trials to the market. The services consistof premarket development, market-launch support, salesrepresentatives and reimbursement and distribution systems.

The formation of the Burlington, Mass., company wasannounced Thursday. TriGenix said it has secured $6 million inprivate financing from D. Blech.

TriGenix is headed by two former executives from GenzymeCorp. William Pursley, former vice president of sales andmarketing at Genzyme, is the chief executive officer of TriGenixand Donald Yarson, formerly director of U.S. marketing atGenzyme, is the new company's president. David Owens,TriGenix's executive vice president, has held market planningand product management positions at Abbott Laboratories andGenentech Inc., and Randall Perry, vice president of healtheconomics and reimbursement systems, has held similarpositions at Johnson & Johnson and Genentech.

Yarson told BioWorld that small companies have tremendousscience, but they don't know how to commercialize products orhow much this will cost. He said it costs $8 million to $15million to set up a 25-30-person sales force, along with amarketing group, reimbursement system and servicerepresentatives. TriGenix will absorb that up-front cost inreturn for a percentage of product sales, Yarson stated.

He said this outsourcing concept will save companies fromlicensing away their products and losing a vast amount offuture revenue. Yarson cited as an example Genentech'slicensing of its human insulin, Humulin, to Eli Lilly and Co. Inaddition, he said that since TriGenix has an infrastructure inplace, it can generate higher sales and deliver the end productto the customer at less cost.

-- Brenda Sandburg News Editor

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.