ALZA triples U.S. sales force

ALZA Corp. will expand its U.S. sales force from fewer than 100 to a total of approximately 360 sales representatives, the Palo Alto, CA-based company announced in July.

"We are adding significant strength to our sales organization in both urology and oncology because we believe our existing portfolio, as well as products under late development, such as Ditropan® XL and DUROS™ leuprolide, will benefit greatly from increased exposure to prescribing physicians," said Ernest Mario, the company's chairman and CEO.

The bigger sales force will be divided into two specialty groups. One will be focused exclusively on the promotion of oncology products to oncologists and the other will be dedicated to promoting urology products to urologists and high-prescribing primary care physicians.

The bulk of the new hires will promote ALZA's urology product line, which includes Elmiron® (pentosan polysulfate), Ditropan® (oxybutynin chloride) and Testoderm® TTS (Testosterone Transdermal System). They will also promote Ditropan® XL, if the FDA grants the product in development marketing clearance.

Seventy-five of the new urology hires will come from Menlo Park, CA-based VIVUS Inc., which markets Muse® (alprostadil) for erectile dysfunction, ALZA reported.

The former VIVUS sales reps will continue to promote Muse for VIVUS until the end of 1998 before focusing solely on ALZA products, according to the agreement between the two companies.

Under a separate agreement, ALZA will also hire 150 contract sales reps from Yardsley, PA-based Innovex Inc. to detail urology products to primary care physicians. PR