A) The initial uptake is going to be in patients who have already failed tasigna/sprycel and/or have the T315I mutation in which tasigna/sprycel are ineffective, so, I really don't expect the initial uptake will be affected by the label at all.
B) Tasigna is on track to sell over $1 billion with its black box label. Iclusig is a better drug.
C) If Iclusig had only a "marginally" better MMR, then perhaps NVS's marketing tactics would have an impact but its going to be a hard argument for them to win based on the merits. Plus, key opinion leaders such as Cortez are clearly in the camp of using Iclusig as early as possible.
D) By the time, Ariad is ready to ramp sales into 1/2nd-line, the EPIC trial data will be available which I believe will show that the AE's experienced in the 3/4 line PACE trial won't carry over to a front-line population of younger, healthier patients.
