Either this is extremely short sighted, DNDN management knows something, or they are fearful of not getting at least a 1 year advantage against the competition, which, if I recall correctly, were due for some phase III results right around 2010. Does management think that Provenge will not be competitive against the more off the shelf medications being tested by the competition if both come to market at about the same time?
Who knows. They probably figure they'll file the drug anyways and argue that the 2% points don't mean a hill of beans given the dearth of alternatives, etc. Same argument as made last year for approval (which I still believe the FDA should have conditionally approved and it made absolutely no regulatory sense not to conditionally approve it given the intangibles here). So perhaps DNDN thinks there is nothing to lose anyways, and we get our day with the FDA a year earlier.
Turned out not to be a good bet last year.
Tinker