Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

> ZGEN – I just find it hard to believe you can replace a very cheap product [bovine thrombin] with a likely much higher priced one… The risk of mad cow disease is more likely theoretical than actual and the risk of allergy is likely extremely low.<

ZGEN’s rhThrombin CC this morning had these astonishing revelations: most surgeons who use bovine thrombin do not know that:

1) The product carries a black-box warning for severe allergic reaction; and

2) Approximately 5% of individuals in a setting where the product is used have antibodies against bovine thrombin before treatment. (These are the patients at the highest risk for a severe reaction, but there is no commercial test to identify them.)

In ZGEN’s just-completed phase-3 trial, 1.5% of patients in the rhThrombin arm had detectable anti-product antibodies after treatment vs 22% in the bovine arm (p=10^-11).

>If the recombinant thrombin is under $100 I would use it otherwise forget it.<

You’re in the mainstream, evidently. On the CC, a leading surgeon said $100 is the amount above which price might become an issue. Regards, Dew