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J&J Working to Boost Supply of Cancer Drug Doxil by September
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said it’s exploring ways to resume making the cancer medicine Doxil by September after a production shutdown at a supplier last year contributed to a shortage. Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (BING)’s Ben Venue Laboratories factory in Ohio stopped production in November after regulators questioned the product quality. Ben Venue said it may resume operations by the end of 2012. J&J plans to transfer the manufacturing to another supplier, said Lisa Vaga, a spokeswoman for the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company.
J&J, the world’s second-largest seller of health-care products after Pfizer Inc., may be able to boost its supplies of the drug sooner by having Ben Venue formulate the medication, then transfer it to another company for the filling and packaging of the product, Vaga said in a telephone interview.
“We anticipate health authority approval would be in the September time frame, with limited amount of Doxil available shortly thereafter,” she said.
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