Replies to post #154682 on Biotech Values

[mcbio]

RTRX: I'm still a skeptic . I asked Martin about using Tracleer when its generic. He said Actelion said it wouldn't work. Someone else pointed out that the selectivity may be a reason so now I'd ask why Gilead or GSK wouldn't try a combo with ambrisentan (letairis). The way I see it its too risky for the following reasons (not necessarily in order):
1) Competitive risk (Other ERA+ARB/ACEi)
2) From the presentation it seems that ARB/ACEi have an effect on proteinuria so there is a bar.
3) I couldn't find human data so there is still efficacy and safety risk.
4) Brief history of CEO instability (not that I thought Aslegee was the ideal person for their stage to begin with).
5) I wasn't too comfortable with finding out Martin was involved in their MD molecule. He is either a finance guy or a scientist not too many do both.

Fair enough. Thanks for the comments.

Incidentally since the thread started with talking about some speculative Bio's one we started with ARWR has a small indirect tie to our discussion. Bruce Given their COO (or some upper management position) was the CEO of Encysive which developed Thelin. I bet if he gets the chance again he won't hire a sales force before the FDA decision .

On ARWR, check out their corporate presentation under the "News & Events" portion of their Web site: http://www.arrowheadresearch.com/presentations . Scroll down to "Current Corporate Presentation" dated 6/8/12. Very nice overview of the company. Talks about potential advantages of their homing peptides over ADCs. Also, obesity drug going after very novel target and non-CNS (targeting fat cells' blood supply) with data out around mid-2013. Of the two, ARWR is probably "safer" than RTRX given their broad platforms.