SkyePharma's board has spurned rebel investors, installing former Novartis CEO Dr. Argeris "Jerry" Karabelas as its new chairman and announcing plans to sell its injectables unit after failing to find a buyer for the whole company. The U.K. company said that it would focus development efforts on oral and pulmonary products. SkyePharma's injectables unit is primarily based in San Diego. It has two marketed products--the pain drug Depodur and the cancer therapy DepoCyt--with other products in the pipeline.
SkyePharma believes it can make a go of it with a more narrowly focused company, with much of its hopes for a return to profitability based on the progress of the experimental asthma therapy Flutiform, which is entering Phase III trials in a few days. It will also continue to market Paxil CR, Xatral OD and Triglide.
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