InterMune Inc. (ITMN)

[ghmm]

Shionogi announced the launch of Pirespa (Pirfenidone) today. There are actually a number of notable things in the PR:

http://www.shionogi.co.jp/ir_en/news/detail/e_081212.pdf

1. The price is per tablet (good) which is 676.4 yen per tablet (about 7.5 USD). At the upper dose (which is lower then what it would be in the high dose of capacity) that would be 9 tablets a day which works out to about 25K per year (for a fully compliant patient).
Dan Welch had said he expected the price to be significantly lower then what it might be in the US. I don't understand why that would be the case but if the pricing is the same on a mg basis in the US (at 800mg TID) price would be around 33K. So if Dan is right on pricing we could be looking at something in the 50k+ range? I had thought 30k +/-. Of course it will depend on how good our data is.
2. There is a post marketing surveillance.
3. The mention of fibrosis inhibiting effect is quite interesting. The drug has been studied considerably in (small) studies in numerous other fibrotic indications (see #msg-24788957 for a partial list) and I wonder if there will be some off-label use.