Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

(MNTA/Regado)—Some analysts think this is the nearest thing to Momenta's M118…

Thanks for posting the phase-2 data for Regado’s RB006/RB007. This product candidate has several handicaps to overcome in the ACS indication that MNTA’s M118 does not have:

• RB006 is an aptamer—a kind of drug that does not have a good track record. (Macugen, which turned out to be a commercial bust with marginal efficacy, is the foremost example.)

• RB006 requires a proprietary reversing agent (RB007) to be reversed, while M118 can be reversed by the industry-standard reversing agent, protamine. The use of an unfamiliar reversing agent is apt to run into some pushback from clinicians, IMO.

• RB006 inhibits Factor IX, which is not as natural a place to intervene in the coagulation cascade for treating ACS as are FXa and thrombin (see diagram in #msg-26899675). Regado’s MoA is tantamount to temporarily inducing an acquired form of hemophilia B with RB006 and then restoring the patent to normal with RB007.

All told, as a MNTA investor, I’m more concerned about MNTA’s getting the funding to develop M118 than I am about potential competition from Regado.