Biotech Values

[mbkennel]

Isn't the Big Dog for PFE torcetrapib? (You try to
spell that without Googling it!)

That's the HDL raiser which they are planning on
bundling with Lipitor (presumably if FTC lets them).

That could be a 10 billion+ drug I would imagine. Here, any hint of long term toxicity would be devastating. If they pass, I think it will sell wildly.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34138

the money shot:
"In a study of nearly 500 patients, those who received torcetrapib (60 mg) and atorvastatin (10, 20, 40, 80 mg) had increases in HDL-C of 44 to 66 percent. At the same time, their LDL-C dropped between 41 and 60 percent."

Assuming 50% for both, this means that their LDL/HDL ratio improved by a factor of three!! Raising HDL is very difficult.

I think the cardiologists are starting to recognize more and more that HDL is very clinically important, perhaps even more than LDL.

In a different therapy, a biotech (which PFE scooped up recently) showed a genetically altered HDL molecule induced actual plaque regressions in a few weeks trial.

Apparently that's unprecedented.