Abraxis Split Closes Door on a Rocky Patch for AstraZeneca

(MoneyWatch)  The split between AstraZeneca and Abraxis over their copromotion of cancer drug Abraxane was expected among some Abraxis reps since August of this year. Now it's official. The end of the agreement comes as the patent on Casodex expires in April 2009 and the company this week saw mixed results from its trials of Zactima.

So perhaps BNET spoke too soon when we suggested recently that AZ reps had avoided the recent round of layoffs because they had upped their sales efficiency in the last year. Judging by Cafe Pharma, AZ reps are fearful for their jobs. Fewer drugs in the bag mean fewer reps needed to promote them. Over at Abraxis, they're fighting amongst themselves over whether AZ brought them the credibility they needed to sell the drug or simply gummed up the works with their stuffy corporate compliance issues.

Management at AZ will likely be breathing a sigh of relief that the marriage ended in divorce. Abraxane only generated $62 million in sales per year, and the unwinding wil require Abraxis to pay AZ a $268 million fee.

And lest we forget, it also allows AZ to put behind it the disastrous "Bucket of Money" scandal that made AZ's cancer reps the laughing stock of the industry. One of the lesser noted chapters of that fiasco involved meetings between Abraxis and AZ reps at which off-label sales were discussed and staff were urged to put nothing in writing.

Image by Flickr user Matt Coats, CC.