Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc fka ARIA

[bellweather1]

Peter/Others-Re:Pona Competition:

Two potential competitors are mentioned in the biotechstrategyblog(http://biotechstrategyblog.com/2011/12/cml-update-from-2011-ash-annual-meeting.html/)

I'm not particularly worried about bosutinib, because:

it has a higher level of treatment discontinuing side effects, plus it's CCyR isn't even superior to Imatinib.

Though it may be approved because it's more rapidly effective in a small subset of cml pts(b/c of more rapid MMR), it doesn't appear to address the mutations.

Since Ponatinib is, in all likelihood, superior to Imatinib in CCyR, generates less serious side effects, and handles "all" mutations, bosutinib won't, by and large, be competitive.

However, I'm not as confident about DCC-2036.

Though it's a "potent" switch pocket inhibitor(nice explanation of switch pocket inhibitors:http://www.gistsupport.org/ask-the-professional/switch-pocket-kinase-inhibitors.php )of BCR-ABL1 and it's mutants,

the current phase 1 data from ASH was too small and short duration to provide meaningful comparative data(http://ash.confex.com/ash/2011/webprogram/Paper42291.html).

Therefore, my question is: What else do we know about DCC-2036 in terms of general and mutant efficacy, and side effects profile vs Ponatinib?

Also, are there any compelling theoretical reasons why switch pockets may prove to be more rapid+/or effective kinase inhibitors than conventional ones?

Also, any reason to think my discounting the potential threat of bosutinib is misplaced?

Thanks,

bw