Spectrum Pharmaceutecals Inc (SPPI)

[antihama]

A long-time long's lament (or jealous of SGEN). Seattle Genetics just submitted a NDA for Adcentris in 1st-line Frontline CD30-Expressing PTLC. Slow but steady SGEN got approval in 3rd line CTCL (before Folotyn (I believe) and definitely before Beleodaq got approved in 3rd-line PTLC, and slowly but surely progressed their drug in front-line settings in CTLC and PTLC, and now they have a $9B MC (w negative earnings to boot). Future development of Folotyn, Beleodaq, and Marqibo was a strong cause of excitement for me in Spectrum. But alas, they never developed the drugs further and I believe squandered a significant opportunity. You might give Dr Raj kudos for getting these drugs but you have to give him a F for squandering opportunities. Yes, he kept costs down by not developing them further and just content w the sales he was getting in 3rd-line therapy but I think that was penny wise pound foolish.

Yes, I know what you're thinking "These drugs weren't developed because they didn't show enough activity" but you can never argue that w me for Folotyn plus romidepsin. I always remember the excitement I had watching the video of preliminary data presented by Dr. Owen O’Connor of the NYU Langone Medical Center 4yrs ago (https://vimeo.com/110122034) that showed it had great potential as a combo and thinking "Raj give Dr O'Conner a holler on developing this further" but to no avail. Who remembers the next Quarterly cc after that when Raj was asked a Q by an analyst about partnering (more or less alluding to this study) and getting a less than generic answer from Raj. See post 1566 for the more mature, and still promising ASH 2016 results (man, I was posting on ihub in 2016? how time flys!). Last time I checked there's several P2/P3 Romidepsin Plus Pralatrexate in PTCL trials posted on the web by NYU languishing to begin recruitment ( I hate to check these days, it gets me frustrated). Imagine if Spectrum got on the horn 4 yrs ago and got the ball moving on the combo study? I think that was a lost opportunity. So that's one of the reasons you may think I pick on Spectrum sometimes (Rolontis BLA in 2017 anyone?); I've seen them not execute and look for any signs of that happening now. Anyhows, pozi recruitment does seem to be going nicely except for the EU ;)