Ranexa's competition weakened? (CVTX)
There was a bit of news out yesterday from a JAMA-published study that leads me to think the road to riches for CV Therapeutics may have been slightly smoothed.
CV Therapeutics has a drug called Ranexa that's in the midst of phase 3 trials for chronic angina, and CVTX is hoping for label expansion to treat other kinds of heart disease. One of the major treatments for these heart problems today is a class of drug called Beta Blockers, which are widely available in many generic forms.
Now, word comes that Beta Blockers may be dangerous for some people with specific genetic makeups -- and not just a small number, but a large class of people -- possibly up to a million people a year who are hospitalized for minor heart attacks.
Here's a quote from one of the doctors involved in the study, by way of a Bloomberg article: ``Some people are genetically predisposed to benefit from beta-blocker therapy, and others are unlikely to receive benefit and might even be harmed by these commonly used drugs,'' said Howard McLeod, a professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who was involved in the study, in a telephone interview today.
That adds to the need to approve and get to market an alternative treatment for those people, of which Ranexa may be one, so it possibly means approval might be easier to come by since there is a weakness in the currently available treatment, and it also increases the market for such a drug (not that there was a need to increase the market for chronic angina drugs for this to succeed, demographics are doing that for us).
Now, this may not make a real difference, but I haven't seen other folks mention it's possible significance for CVTX so I thought I'd put it out there. If I'm misinterpreting, I hope someone will correct me.
And as an aside, the other finding from this study is that genetic testing can be of significant therapeutic benefit in determining which treatment(s) will be effective for some diseases for particular individuals, or may even be lifesaving on an everyday treatment basis. Because there are genetic markers that determine whether or not beta blockers will help or hurt a patient, it's quite likely that testing for those markers could become a signficant business. Who might make those tests? Way too early to tell, or at least I haven't heard an answer, but why not Myriad Genetics (MYGN), another of my portfolio companies and the market leader in lots of different genetic tests. Something to think about.
Not sure if this news warrants considering an additional purchase of CV Therapeutics once I've got the funding available ... but maybe. I was already pleased with the potential for Ranexa to make significant inroads as a new treatment option for various heart ailments in the years to come, and the fact that new weaknesses have been identified in some of the existing treatments might tip the scale a little more in their favor. As always, take my opinion with a grain of salt, I have no more capacity to comprehend medical or genetic testing than the next guy.
CV Therapeutics has a drug called Ranexa that's in the midst of phase 3 trials for chronic angina, and CVTX is hoping for label expansion to treat other kinds of heart disease. One of the major treatments for these heart problems today is a class of drug called Beta Blockers, which are widely available in many generic forms.
Now, word comes that Beta Blockers may be dangerous for some people with specific genetic makeups -- and not just a small number, but a large class of people -- possibly up to a million people a year who are hospitalized for minor heart attacks.
Here's a quote from one of the doctors involved in the study, by way of a Bloomberg article: ``Some people are genetically predisposed to benefit from beta-blocker therapy, and others are unlikely to receive benefit and might even be harmed by these commonly used drugs,'' said Howard McLeod, a professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who was involved in the study, in a telephone interview today.
That adds to the need to approve and get to market an alternative treatment for those people, of which Ranexa may be one, so it possibly means approval might be easier to come by since there is a weakness in the currently available treatment, and it also increases the market for such a drug (not that there was a need to increase the market for chronic angina drugs for this to succeed, demographics are doing that for us).
Now, this may not make a real difference, but I haven't seen other folks mention it's possible significance for CVTX so I thought I'd put it out there. If I'm misinterpreting, I hope someone will correct me.
And as an aside, the other finding from this study is that genetic testing can be of significant therapeutic benefit in determining which treatment(s) will be effective for some diseases for particular individuals, or may even be lifesaving on an everyday treatment basis. Because there are genetic markers that determine whether or not beta blockers will help or hurt a patient, it's quite likely that testing for those markers could become a signficant business. Who might make those tests? Way too early to tell, or at least I haven't heard an answer, but why not Myriad Genetics (MYGN), another of my portfolio companies and the market leader in lots of different genetic tests. Something to think about.
Not sure if this news warrants considering an additional purchase of CV Therapeutics once I've got the funding available ... but maybe. I was already pleased with the potential for Ranexa to make significant inroads as a new treatment option for various heart ailments in the years to come, and the fact that new weaknesses have been identified in some of the existing treatments might tip the scale a little more in their favor. As always, take my opinion with a grain of salt, I have no more capacity to comprehend medical or genetic testing than the next guy.
Labels: CVTX
This article posted by One Guy @ 9/28/2005 02:10:00 PM 0 comments
Add to: del.icio.us *Furl *Google *Spurl *reddit *StumbleUpon *Yahoo MyWeb *
Add to: del.icio.us *Furl *Google *Spurl *reddit *StumbleUpon *Yahoo MyWeb *
