Replies to post #88585 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Thanks for your post, Idit; however, I object to articles in the lay press that refer to both anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs as “blood thinners,” as though they were members of the same class.

The article you posted makes an effort to distinguish between arterial clots and venous clots, but it causes needless confusion by saying, “Until now, the only oral blood thinners besides warfarin have been Plavix…and aspirin.” It’s simply bad medicine to view Plavix and aspirin as alternatives to warfarin, and vice-versa. Regards, Dew

p.s. This post has a personal side to it. Recently, the 95-year-old mother of a friend of mine had a fall and was taken off daily warfarin because the attending physician thought warfarin increased the risk for a repeat fall. This woman has AF and you can probably guess the result of this medication change: within two months she had suffered two TIA's and had partial paralysis on one side. When I heard that her doctors had not reinstated warfarin and were considering prescribing Plavix instead, I told my friend to insist on warfarin…period. He did, and it was restored, which will hopefully prevent another stroke or TIA.

[DewDiligence]

LLY’s Effient continues to show underwhelming sales: $3.8M worldwide during 4Q09 (that’s not a tpyo):

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Lilly-Reports-FourthQuarter-prnews-394010837.html?x=0&.v=1

The $3.8M consisted of $1.4M in the US and $2.4M ex-US. No mater what excuses LLY furnishes, it’s already clear that Effient is not going to become a big-selling drug.

[DewDiligence]

Addendum: That Effient is a commercial dud does not tell us anything about the commercial prospects for new anticoagulants such as Xarelto, Pradaxa… and M118. Antiplatelet drugs and anticoagulants are two distinct drug classes in spite of lay press’ propensity to confuse them.