Biotech Values

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Bavarian in Talks to Sell Prostate Cancer Vaccine
By Frances Schwartzkopff - Nov 9, 2010 11:53 AM ET
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/bavarian-is-in-advanced-talks-to-sell-prostate-cancer-vaccine.html?cmpid=yhoo

Bavarian Nordic A/S, the Danish drugmaker supplying the U.S. government with smallpox vaccines, gained the most in two weeks in Copenhagen trading after saying it’s in discussions to license its prostate cancer shot.

Several drugmakers, “including some of the largest,” are conducting due diligence on the product, which may extend men’s lives two times longer than Dendreon Corp.’s and Johnson & Johnson’s medicines, Bavarian Nordic said today in a statement.

“The market’s opening its eyes and seeing that Bavarian Nordic could enter into a partnership in the near future,” said Frank Hoerning Andersen, an analyst at Jyske Bank.

The medicine, Prostvac, extended men’s lives by as much as 8.5 months compared with a placebo, early trials showed. Men lived about 4.1 months longer with Dendreon’s Provenge and 3.9 months longer in a study of J&J’s experimental treatment abiraterone. Bavarian may be able to demand royalty payments of as much as 25 percent of sales, Andersen said.

Bavarian gained 12.50 kroner, or 5.7 percent, to 233 kroner as of 5:05 p.m. It was the biggest advance since Oct. 25. The shares have risen 46 percent in the past 12 months compared with an 11 percent increase in the Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceutical Index.

Bavarian Nordic plans to begin the final stage of testing needed to gain regulatory approval next year. The drugmaker received fast-track designation in April from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the vaccine’s use in men whose cancer is worsening despite treatment.

Larry Biegelsen, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities in New York, estimated that Seattle-based Dendreon’s Provenge costs about $93,000 for three doses administered over the course of a month. Abiraterone, which New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson acquired last year as part of its $878 million takeover of Cougar Biotechnology, may be priced at $27,000 annually, he said.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Frances Schwartzkopff at [e-mail]