Alright Pharma Investors, time for the daily pharma watch. I apologize for the delay, I have been having problems with my server.
Arena (ARNA):
It seems like Arena has beaten both Vivus and Orexigen in getting their weight loss NDA filed. The three companies each have competing obesity drugs in similar stages of development. Today Arena submitted their NDA for the drug lorcaserin, the NDA is being submitted with data based on the BLOOM and BLOSSOM study. Investors should expect Vivus to file the NDA for their weight loss drug Qnexa sometime this year. Later today I will do a cross comparison between the three companies drugs for those that are interested.
AVI Biopharma (AVII):
AVI reported some pretty good results this morning for their drug AVI-4658, which treats Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). The company is reporting topline results from the Phase 1/2b trial of the drug. DMD is a debilitating muscle disease that occurs because of the body’s lack of ability to create dystrophin. The results show an increase from 1% to 21% of dystrophin positive muscle fibers on the drug, which is a significant jump. Additionally, when the drug was compared to the level of dystrophin in normal muscle fibers, the dystrophin content per patient fiber went from 5% pre-treatment to 37% in the post-treatment biopsy. Press release here
OncoGenex (OGXI):
I almost can’t believe my eyes on this one. November and December have produced some of the worst pharma deals I have ever seen in my life. First, we had Protalix sell off their gaucher disease drug to Pfizer for a quick turn only to watch investors left holding the bag. And now we have this OncoGenex disaster, I don’t know what “Master of the Universe” brokered this boondoggle, but it is about the most absolute worst deal I have ever seen in my life. I almost can’t believe it. OncoGenex is selling the rights to their prostate cancer drug OGX-011 to Teva for a slim $30 million dollars. Investors didn’t like it and neither did I, the shares tanked almost $10 on the sham deal. Granted the drug is a bolt-on therapy to taxotere, but the results released last year were pretty good. The drug increases overall survival by almost a full 6.9 months, however those results were what was lowered from the original reporting of almost 10 months. Maybe OncoGenex thinks the drug is no good and is unloading it before it sinks anymore money into it.
Cell Therapeutics (CTIC):
You gotta love Cell Therapeutics’ PR department. Today the company put out a press release saying that they would commit to PhRMA’s code on interactions with healthcare professionals. I don’t think Cell needed to put out a PR on this one. Today’s PR was more about hyping the meeting they have with the FDA’s ODAC coming up in February for their cancer drug Pixantrone.
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