Two potentially big prizes are still several years away -- boceprevir for hepatitis C and the anticoagulant SCH530348. [Actually, SCH530348, also called TRA, is an antiplatelet drug rather than an anticoagulant (#msg-23899164).]
I believe that anticoagulants is the superclass for antiplatelets. (Also included in anticoagulants are antithrombins and ...)
I have not yet figured out whether we really know whether one of these subclasses is better than others for different indications. E.g. Evidence is mixed whether aspirin works to prevent DVT but it does work for prevention of MI.
Feb 12, 2008 (financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- February 12, 2008 (FinancialWire) Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE: SGP) and OraSure Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OSUR) have agreed to develop and promote a rapid oral hepatitis C virus test using OraSure's OraQuick blood test.
The agreement expands an existing collaboration for product promotion in U.S. physicians' office markets, announced last year, to international markets.
Under terms of the deal, Schering-Plough will reimburse OraSure for certain development costs and will issue payments to OraSure based on certain regulatory and commercial milestones in international markets.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Shares of Schering-Plough rose 85 cents to close at $20.62, while shares of OraSure rose 18 cents to close at $7.79.
>> May 12, 2008, 12:37 pm Posted by Sarah Rubenstein
Schering-Plough has been playing hard to get when it comes finding another company to help commercialize an experimental anti-clotting drug that looks like a jewel in the drugmaker’s pipeline. But Schering-Plough might settle for a less than ideal candidate as the company muddles through a slump in sales of cholesterol drug Vytorin and a share price that’s in the doldrums.
The drug, code-named SCH 530348 but more commonly known as “TRA,” for thrombin receptor antagonist, has started late-stage trials for prevention of heart attacks and strokes in patients with atherosclerosis and those with acute coronary syndrome.
The medicine could make it to the U.S. market around 2010 or 2011. But the tests are a big investment, because nearly 30,000 people are expected to participate. And going it alone could be a risky move for Schering-Plough, which would lose all the cash if the drug doesn’t work out.
So far, CEO Fred Hassan has been reluctant to bring another drugmaker on board, even as rivals like Bristol-Myers Squibb have gone that route as a way to share both risks and rewards[i.e. with Apixaban]. Hassan has said he’s open to a partnership, but wants a deal that gives Schering-Plough access to another company’s drug in development with similar potential. That’s a high bar in this period of parched pharmaceutical pipelines.
“CEOs are calling me personally about this product,” Hassan said at a January conference hosted by Morgan Stanley, according to a transcript from Thomson Reuters. “But we are asking them to show us a quid that has the same kind of a value so that we can diversify on both sides. And unfortunately, for the larger companies, they have nothing to show us.”
Well, now showing Schering-Plough the money may be enough. Based on conversations with the company’s management, Morgan Stanley analyst Jami Rubin writes in a note to investors that she senses Schering-Plough is now open to a cash deal. That may happen soon, she writes, as Schering-Plough has been approached by the CEOs of two other companies. Schering-Plough declined to comment on the Morgan Stanley report.
Rubin said a deal that involved a second drug would be preferable because it could represent future growth, while “cash represents, well, cash.” But with issues such as Vytorin as well as debt from Schering-Plough’s acquisition of Organon BioSciences, cash may be just fine at this point.
As for the lack of quids, that’s “yet another sad commentary on the state of pharma R&D,” Rubin writes. <<
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