Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Update on Sanofi’s Stable of Anticoagulant Aspirants

Inasmuch as SNY is now resigned to the loss of Lovenox exclusivity in due course (hopefully soon :- )), the question to ask is how SNY intends to make up some of this lost revenue.

As recently as early 2008, SNY had four drug candidates in its anticoagulant pipeline (#msg-22938795): AVE5026, an ultra low-molecular-weight heparin (average weight of its heparin chains is about half that of Lovenox); Idraparinux, a long-acting Arixtra-like FXa inhibitor; SR123781, a short- and fast-acting Arixtra-like FXa inhibitor; and otamixaban, an oral FXa inhibitor similar to Xarelto and apixaban.

Since then, Idraparinux and SR123781 have been discontinued. The AVE5026 program has been scaled back from a wide array of settings where Lovenox is used to just VTE prevention following surgery or chemotherapy, where SNY thinks AVE5026 may cause less bleeding than Lovenox and phase-3 trials are either completed or underway.

That leaves otamixaban, which SNY says will start a phase-3 trial in ACS during the current quarter. I’m surprised SNY is pushing ahead because the phase-2 otamixaban results in ACS were nothing to rave about (#msg-46648382), and Xarelto, a very similar drug, has not exactly produced stellar ACS data either (#msg-39151366).