Biotech Values

[urche]

Arixtra---GSK, MNTA

This is a minor update on my prior post in which I shared my surprise that a medium size hospital where I worked has adopted Arixtra, deleting Lovenox from the formulary.

Dew's points are compelling why this is not likely to be significant issue for Momenta, despite my concern that just prior to generic enoxaparin hitting the market, Arixtra may be able to pull off a strong increase in market share.

One of the reasons DEW raised for being unconcerned is that Arixtra is not approved for acute coronary syndrome. Be that as it may, this NH hospital, which has a strong cardiology dep't and does PCI, is in fact using Arixtra (off label) for ACS.

Once again, the suddenness of this shift in a pretty conservative hospital took me by surprise. But, let's not lose sight of the fact that when generic enoxaparin hits the market, the cost savings will rapidly annul any market share gained by Arixtra.

urche