Danish drugmaker Lundbeck, which markets the alcoholism drug Selincro, last month mobilized members of the European Parliament, anti-alcohol NGOs and academics to convince the European Parliament to vote to urge the European Commission to take a harder position against the detrimental affects of alcohol.
Lundbeck employees also quietly ran anti-alcohol campaigns behind the scenes, Politico reports, confronting lobbyists with pro-alcohol interests that rallied against many of the recommendations, according to FiercePharma. The company succeeded when the EC advised member states to “implement policies and treatments within their healthcare systems that reduce alcohol addiction in individuals,” the FiercePharma article said.
Lundbeck has been working hard to promote Selincro, which works to curb alcohol cravings, amidst a growth in alcohol dependence in Europe. Since 2013, Lundbeck has spent more than €315,000 ($344,000) on patient organizations in Europe for anti-alcohol campaigns, Politico notes.
Those awareness campaigns ran in countries including Belgium, France, Germany and the U.K. that had not yet decided whether to fund Selincro with their public health budgets, and now, all of those are doing so, according to FiercePhama.
That is good news for Lundbeck, which needed a boost, and recorded first-quarter 2015 sales of 41 million crowns. But the company is looking for more big successes. Overall, it posted a $4.8 million loss before interest and taxes in the period, it said earlier this month.
Source: FiercePharma
