LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Niaspan: Kos Advicor
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In order to better compete with large pharmaceutical companies, Kos continued to approach health insurance providers to advocate for coverage of Niaspan and Advicor. Kos emphasized its role as a specialty manufacturer providing a lower-priced option. Price comparisons illustrated the difference. For instance, a bottle of 60 tablets of 500 mg Niaspan sold at Walgreens for $79.99, while 30 tablets of 40 mg of Pfizer's Lipitor sold for $95.99; 500 mg Advicor was priced at $55.99. Comparatively, the daily dose was $1.70 for Niaspan, $1.97 for Advicor, and $2.42 for Lipitor.
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Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:KOSP) and Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. (TPNA) today announced a three-year agreement to co-promote Kos' Niaspan® and Advicor® in the United States. The co-promotion agreement adds more than 1,000 TPNA sales representatives to the existing Kos sales force to detail Niaspan (extended-release niacin) and Advicor (extended-release niacin/lovastatin), two products developed by Kos for the treatment of cholesterol disorders. Such increased promotional effort is expected to significantly enhance the value of Kos' cholesterol franchise within the U.S., the largest cholesterol market in the world. For TPNA, the agreement fills current sales force capacity while allowing the company to continue to grow its franchise product, ACTOS® (pioglitazone HCl) and develop its existing pipeline.
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The '229 patent, Kos' sixth patent for its Niaspan® based cholesterol franchise, covers certain biopharmaceutical characteristics. Specifically, the patent covers ranges for Cmax (maximum blood concentration), Tmax (time to reach maximum concentration in blood) and AUC (area under the curve) that confer clinically proven safety and tolerability profiles for an extended release niacin formulation. These characteristics are properties of Niaspan and Advicor®, Kos' other marketed cholesterol drug.
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Pursuant to this agreement, TPNA will utilize its U.S.-based sales force, which now exceeds 1,000 representatives, to not only promote its product, ACTOS, but ... detail Kos' Advicor and Niaspan. TPNA is responsible for providing a promotional effort that will nearly double Kos details per year, and for all costs associated with its sales force, including promotional materials and samples. Kos is responsible for manufacturing and supplying both products and will collect and record all sales associated with its products. The co-promotion arrangement has a three-year term commencing January 2004 and provides for residual payments to TPNA after the three years, if the parties do not renew the agreement.
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Kos's two main products are Niaspan and Advicor. Niaspan, launched in 1997, is an extended-release form of the vitamin niacin, which raises levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or good cholesterol. Four-year-old Advicor combines Niaspan with lovastatin, the first in the statin class of drugs, which lower low-density lipoprotein, or bad cholesterol.
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Kos began detailing Niaspan with only 90 sales reps, all calling on cardiologists, and has continued focusing on specialists until very recently. The company wanted to control costs and was counting on a trickle-down effect to general practitioners. It got a trickle, and not much more, to start.
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Kos Advicor