Drugs firm seeks US go-ahead

PROSTRAKAN, the Scottish pharmaceutical firm, has applied for consent that would see it sell a drug that counters clinically low testosterone in the United States.

The Borders firm's Tostran gel product is already sold in various parts of Europe.

It has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell it in the US under the brand name Fortigel.

ProStrakan took over the US rights for Fortigel in 2006 from Cellegy Pharmaceuticals and set about setting up a study, as asked for by the FDA, to prove that it works.

It has now written to the FDA to advise it of the results.

Dr Wilson Totten, ProStrakan's chief executive, said: "The filing of Fortigel is a further milestone in ProStrakan's development and commercial expansion into the US."