The Company in the Line of Fire

By TAMALA M. EDWARDS/NEW YORK

If you are looking for Danco Laboratories LLC, the company that markets and distributes mifepristone, don't bother calling directory assistance. It is not listed. Even last week, with the heralding of the approval of "Mifeprex" (the drug's brand name), someone answering the Danco phone at a New York City number given to the press simply said, "This is Pam. How can I help you?"

Why the secrecy? It's not personal; if you can't find them, neither can antiabortion extremists. The company tries to downplay concern, saying there have been no threats or cause for fear. But its labored history suggests otherwise.

Fears of antiabortion protests kept Roussel Uclaf, the French company that developed mifepristone, from trying to enter the American market. Instead, the company donated rights to the drug to the Population Council, a New York City-based nonprofit research organization. The council conducted the clinical trial of mifepristone, but needed a drug-company partner to handle manufacturing, advertising and distribution. Again, fears of protest--or worse--intervened, with drug behemoths refusing to touch the controversial pill. The council spent a year searching before it chose Danco, a company started expressly to handle mifepristone, in 1995.

But the problems continued. Though Danco attracted investors--the privately held company won't reveal their identity--the firm still had trouble getting full funding. According to the Wall Street Journal, the greatest infusion of cash came from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in the form of a $10 million, advantageously arranged loan. "They were not able to raise the money through regular channels," says Sarah Clark, head of the foundation's population program. "It didn't surprise me. It makes me sad."

While Danco has hired ad firm DDB Worldwide to handle marketing of the drug, it has kept secret the identity of the company that will actually manufacture it. Danco refuses to confirm or deny rumors that it is a Chinese manufacturer; such a choice would be controversial, given the communist country's one-child policy.

Danco reportedly expects profits of about $34 million by 2004. As the sole licensee of the drug, Danco could reap even more benefits as it researches Mifeprex's possible uses in treating such diseases as brain and prostate cancer. Indeed, company officials say they are looking forward to being more of a force in the pharmaceutical world. But don't expect a welcome mat soon. "I don't think we're planning on having a public office," says Heather O'Neill, Danco's spokeswoman. "We have a post-office box."

--By Tamala M. Edwards/New York