Douglas Pharmaceutical gets US approval for acne medication

Local pharmaceutical company Douglas Pharmaceuticals has gained Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to sell and distribute its New Zealand developed acne medication ‘isotretinoin’ in the United States.Douglas Pharmaceuticals has been pushing to break into the US acne medication market for around ten years, which is currently worth around $US400 million ($NZ494 million).“This is a huge breakthrough for us and for New Zealand which will benefit from the increased export earnings,” Douglas Pharmaceutical director Jeff Douglas said.“We believe our isotretinoin is the first New Zealand developed human medicine to be approved for use in the US. It’s our biggest export product and is the market leader in Spain, Austria, Germany and Mexico. The US market has, however, taken a little longer to get approval but as the US is the largest pharmaceutical market in the world the potential for us is very exciting.”Mr Douglas says the first US orders will be despatched within the next month and a consumer launch is likely to be initiated around April or May of this year.