Content area
Full Text
Drug, Device Companies Require Product, Trial Policies
The trials and tribulations of drug and medical device companies are numerous-financing, products that may not pan out, regulatory hurdles, competition.
Then there's insurance.
Insurance has gotten more costly for just about all companies in the wake of corporate scandals at Enron Corp. and others. Drug and medical device makers have to buy insurance to cover normal operations as well as to protect their officers and directors.
They also have to insure products that have the potential to help people, yet still carry risks. Some things-like regulatory rejection of a company's product-can't be covered.
Key policies for medical companies are product liability and clinical trial insurance, said Vince Anido, chief executive of Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine-based maker of eye drugs with 175 workers.
For drug makers, the cost of product liability insurance depends, he said.
"If it's traditional-like a tablet, or a liquid, or a topical of some sort-that has less risk than, say, an injectable," he said.
Ista's products include Vitrase, an injectable drug that's approved as a spreading agent for other medications, and Istalol, a beta-blocker eye drop for treating glaucoma.