The problem I believe is that patients currently being put on PLX-PAD are already in serious condition, on ventilators. Some of the damage may already been done, while our drug may help restore some things, it's hard to say if all damage can be repaired. I certainly agree that we're probably saving lives of people on ventilators, but if we can get it to people who's pneumonia has just shown in X-rays, we can benefit them to the point they may never require hospitalization.
This will be an evolving process, first we dose those closest to dying, then those where ventilators are thought to be needed within a day or so, then to those with pneumonia serious enough to cause hospitalization, and finally to people who've just been found to have pneumonia, but who're still capable of self care at home. It could take some time to evolve through all these stages, but if we manage to do it, our drug could become SOC treatment for all determined to have pneumonia.
I cannot say what a fair price will be for treatment. No doubt it will be more than current therapies, but a certain percentage on current therapies even before coronavirus wound up in the hospital, with some eventually dying. The up front cost may be higher, but far fewer should require hospitalization, and far fewer should die, so the net cost may be substantially lower in spite of the higher initial cost.
If as another investor suggested, two injections are all that will be required, it's a small fraction of what's used in the treatment of CLI, so the cost should be a fraction of that treatment. Perhaps it may be found that in earlier pneumonia cases a single injection may be all that's required. We're really a long way from knowing how the drug may best be used, and we'll probably want to look at whether PLX-R18 may be as good or better under certain circumstances.
Let's hope we get good news from our first patient here in the U.S., but one person is hardly a trial, we really need to get it into many more.
Gary
