Tomoxetine (Eli Lilly & Co).

Eli Lilly is developing tomoxetine, a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, for the potential treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. As of May 2000, tomoxetine was undergoing phase III trials in the US [368128]. An NDA was filed with the FDA in October 2001, with a launch expected in the second half of 2002 [426786]. Tomoxetine was first investigated by Lilly in the 1980s as a potential treatment for depressive illness. The compound was selected from a series of potent inhibitors of norepinephrine reuptake, and reached large-scale phase II clinical trials for depression in 1990. Development for this indication appeared to stop at that time, despite some evidence that tomoxetine wasfairly effective [273943]. In 1996, Lilly apparently restarted preclinical development of tomoxetine as a potential therapyfor ADHD, and submitted EP-00721777 claiming tomoxetine's utility for this disorder in July of that year [273956]. In June 2001, ABN AMRO predicted sales of $121 million in 2002, rising to $4,064 million in 2012 [422762]. In October 2001, analysts at Salomon Smith Barney predicted that the product would make sales of $24 million in 2002, rising to $305 million in 2005 [427501].