In my opinion, VASC has longer term problems as their thrombin is bovine-based. Below is a quote from an article I posted on the SI VASC, asking for comments.
A new type of thrombin could quickly render the older molecule obsolete. King's Thrombin-JMI is derived from the blood of cows. Even after a rigorous purification process, it contains some additional cow-based proteins that occasionally cause allergic reactions in patients. In rare cases, patients can become anemic, complicating their recovery from whatever procedure called for thrombin in the first place.
"[Patients] can have antibodies to bovine-based thrombin, and that can lead to significant bleeding disorders," says Alvin Schmaier, a hematologist at the University of Michigan. "Even with purification from cow blood or human blood, you can still have contaminating proteins, so the best kind of agent to use would be a recombinant one."
Recombinant is pharmaceutical-speak for genetically engineered. Zymogenetics (ZGEN4), a Seattle-based biotech, is trying to create the first recombinant thrombin, called rhThrombin. Analysts say that unlike King's version of the drug, rhThrombin might not require a black-box warning on the label, the FDA's most stringent caution of a drug's potential side effects.
Edward Tenthoff, an analyst with Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, is optimistic that there won't be a black-box warning. "This will be an important competitive advantage against Thrombin-JMI," he wrote in an August research note. "As a result, we expect Zymo will rapidly convert the surgical bleeding market, which we estimate could reach $300 million by the time rhThrombin is approved [in 2007]." |
