UCB commits to R&D, bullish on Cimzia

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - Belgium's UCB UCBBt.BR will invest heavily in research in the coming years, having transformed itself from a hybrid chemical business to a focused biopharmaceutical group, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

UCB plans to invest about 25 percent of sales in research and development this year and Roch Doliveux told the Reuters Biotechnology Summit in London that spending would remain close to this level in the years ahead.

"I do expect it to remain certainly higher than 20 percent and closer to 25 percent over the coming years. There may be years when it is higher and years when it is lower, but on average that is a good base," he said.

This year promises to be an important one for UCB as it seeks marketing approval for its biggest new drug hope, Cimzia, an antibody-based medicine being targeted initially at people with Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory disorder of the digestive tract.

Doliveux said Cimzia -- which UCB acquired when it bought Britain's Celltech in 2004 -- was on track for submission to U.S. regulators by the end of the first quarter of 2006.

"In Europe, it may be a matter of days (later) if it is not the first quarter," he added.

The drug will also be filed for use against rheumatoid arthritis in around a year's time and it represents a key asset for UCB, which faces loss of U.S. patent protection on its top-selling allergy drug Zyrtec in December 2007.

FACING COMPETITION  Continued...