Good overview of drugs in the pipeline

bromley · Post by **bromley** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:48 am

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?j17 ... 8&w=464753

dignan · Post by **dignan** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 9:46 am

Thanks Ian, that is interesting. One thing about the safety of FTY720 that I've been wondering is whether the deaths in the phase 3 trial were in the high dose or low dose arm. If they were in the high dose arm, then there is still hope that the safety profile of the low dose will be ok.

One quote I found interesting,

Only 5 percent of all MS compounds that entered clinical trials in 1995 or later won FDA approval—that's significantly less than the industry average of 12 percent.

Hub · Post by **Hub** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:18 pm

Dignan, Ian, or anyone else--

Any idea why the article doesn't discuss Dirucotide (MBP8298)? I'm assuming it's because Dirucotide is in phase 3 only for SPMS (it's in phase 2 for RRMS). I just hope there aren't problems with Dirucotide that I haven't heard of that make it seem less promising for the author of the article.

Dirucotide seems (at least to me) to be the most exciting potential new treatment (because of high efficacy and convenience, and low side effects, at least so far).

dignan · Post by **dignan** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:50 am

Hub, that's a good point. I noticed that they didn't talk about BG12, a pill in phase 3 for RRMS. I have no idea if the exclusions were deliberate or just carelessness. It makes me take what they say with a grain of salt. I also thought their revenue projections for the CRABs / tysabri were too optimistic. It seems to me that in 2011 or 2012, once there are several new treatment options, those CRAB revenues are going to fall off a cliff, but they projected continued growth through 2014. Was this aimed at investors?