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Inside the world of business

EU did too little, too late on Greece

The Euro crisis appears to have passed through yet another inflection point with the acceptance by Europe’s leadership that there is no way out of the Greek crisis without some reduction in the country’s debt burden.

Assorted proposals to achieve this are now back on the table having been ruled out at various stages over the last year and a half.

Once again Europe stands accused of responding too late with too little. The refusal of the leadership to confront the inevitability of a Greek default until now has meant that once again it is fighting the wrong war.

Its inadequate response to the Greek problem in recent months has allowed – if not facilitated – contagion spreading to Italy and it is fast becoming the epicentre of the crisis.

It remains to be seen if the genie can be put back in the bottle via some sort of shock-and-awe policy response to Greece in the coming days. But if the history of the crisis has taught us anything, the answer is probably that it can’t.

Certainly the pattern that preceded the collapse of Ireland and Portugal is being repeated; Italian bond yields are at new highs, as is the cost of insuring Italian debt against default.

Italian banks are taking a hammering and the regulators are desperately trying to halt the slide with curbs on short selling.

As a consequence, all hope of trying to push the problem out until after the summer seems to have been abandoned as any chance of diffusing concerns about Italy require a swift resolution of problems in Greece.

A hot, sticky summer beckons for Europe’s policymakers. Some of the blame for this must fall on themselves.

New drug augurs fat returns at Amarin

The mood among shareholders in drug development group Amarin when they meet this morning will be very different from a year ago.

At that time, the company was upbeat on the prospects of ongoing trials of its purified Omega3 product in reducing cardiovascular risk in patients with very high blood fats, but then management had been equally optimistic about the previous prospect for that same product – as a therapy for Huntington’s disease – whose failure had crippled it. Shares were trading at $2.28 and the company was on its third chief executive in a year, and shortly to lose him too.

Now, the Dublin-based business is flying high. Two Phase III trials have met and bettered all targets set for them and the shares are trading at a buoyant $14.22, having hit $19.87.

Amarin plans a new drug application in September for the drug AMR1010. The clinical trials show it has greater efficacy than the only market rival, Lovaza, in treating people with extremely high blood fats, or “triglycerides”, in that it does not at the same time raise the level of LDL-C , or “bad” cholesterol.

In patients with slightly lower blood fat readings, where its efficacy has also been proved, there is no competitor drug.

Little wonder, then, that the main issue for Amarin and its shareholders is how best to maximise the value of this drug which is seen as having a potential market of more than 100 million patients in the most developed markets – and 40 million in the US alone.

On this point, company management is being understandably coy. With just 20 staff, going it alone sounds ambitious, especially given its lack of previous manufacturing and marketing activity. However, chairman and chief executive Joe Zakrzewski was chief operating officer at Reliant when it developed and launched Lovaza – since acquired by GlaxoSmithKline – so he knows the challenges involved in this area and has brought some of that former team together for this new project.

Lazard’s have been brought on board to advise on other options, including takeover or partnerships. Whichever way it goes, Amarin’s shareholders look close to finally cashing in on their patience.

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Today

European Union finance ministers meet to discuss solutions to the ongoing debt crisis in the euro zone.