Biotech Values

[iwfal]

XOMA

Gevokicumab will certainly be safer than Accutane, which is the only approved treatment for severe acne that really works.

I'd suggest that that is very debatable unless they end up with substantially lesser rate of infection than Ilaris since the primary nastiness of accutane is teratogenic. And the rate of "serious infections" on Ilaris after a single dose is startlingly high at 1.4-1.9 percent (vs placebo which had none). I don't know hospitalization rates for either drug - but I'd be willing to wager a good deal that the excess hospitalization rate on Ilaris is a lot higher than the excess hospitalization rate on Accutane.

BTW - I'd expect that the infection rate can be ameliorated somewhat by use of a lower dose, but the anti-TNF data says that that only blunts the issue and doesn't come anywhere close to background rates.