Alchemia making US inroads with coagulant

Alchemia Limited has revealed it is now selling more than $1.4 million per week worth of its lead drug, fondaparinux, in the US.

The Queensland-based drug discovery and development company said that the fondaparinux product it manufactures has a US prescription market share of 18%.

In the more lucrative retail (non-hospital) segment this market share is even higher at 30%, Alchemia said in a market update, citing data from US IMS Health.

Fondaparinux is a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's Arixtra, a synthetic coagulant used to prevent deep vein thrombosis.

Alchemia's version is sold in the US through Alchemia's worldwide marketing partner, Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

Alchemia estimates that the dollar value of the retail market for fondaparinux was $240 million in 2011, with higher prescription figures making up for the impact of the introduction of generic versions of the drug.

Alchemia (ASX:ACL) shares were trading 6.06% higher at $0.350 as of Monday’s close.

In November, Alchemia revealed plans to spin off its oncology business into a stand-alone company named Alchemia Oncology.