Replies to post #30935 on Biotech Values

[n4807g]

"just find it hard to believe you can replace a very cheap product with a likely much higher priced one (Although that is one of the problems with US medicine in general)."

Yes and there is the achilles heel in the equation. I read a report that the average cancer patient will use approximately $275,000 in therapy during the treatment of their disease. Read "average". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see the system running into real problems. All these very expensive miracle drugs, yet no money to buy them.

[iwfal]

the risk of allergy is likely extremely low

Yes - the first time you use it. But it does seem to induce problems with repeated use:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_...

I would expect that as Bovine Thrombin continues to grow its market the problems will become worse.

[DewDiligence]

>…the risk of allergy is likely extremely low.<

In the cosmetic dermal-filler market, bovine-derived collagen has been supplanted by human collagen even though the human-derived products are no more effective than the bovine ones. The reason: less risk of a serious allergic response and no need to pre-test for allergy.

Collagen dermal fillers have in turn been overtaken by Restylane (which is animal-free), but this is because Restylane works better and lasts longer.

[DewDiligence]

> ZGEN – I just find it hard to believe you can replace a very cheap product [bovine thrombin] with a likely much higher priced one… The risk of mad cow disease is more likely theoretical than actual and the risk of allergy is likely extremely low.<

ZGEN’s rhThrombin CC this morning had these astonishing revelations: most surgeons who use bovine thrombin do not know that:

1) The product carries a black-box warning for severe allergic reaction; and

2) Approximately 5% of individuals in a setting where the product is used have antibodies against bovine thrombin before treatment. (These are the patients at the highest risk for a severe reaction, but there is no commercial test to identify them.)

In ZGEN’s just-completed phase-3 trial, 1.5% of patients in the rhThrombin arm had detectable anti-product antibodies after treatment vs 22% in the bovine arm (p=10^-11).

>If the recombinant thrombin is under $100 I would use it otherwise forget it.<

You’re in the mainstream, evidently. On the CC, a leading surgeon said $100 is the amount above which price might become an issue. Regards, Dew