At home, sick, going through trading files, I see SEPR, 7/27/97, $25.00. Made me feel pretty good to be at $70.
I finally was able to follow up on my remaining question about Southwell's talk at the NYC investors' luncheon. He mentioned that Paxil and Luvox are single isomer drugs. This piqued my curiousity--.
I find that these drugs were _developed_ as single isomer drugs. They have no parent drug, either one. Sales for Paxil are high, among the top 20 drugs I'd guess. (see Rxlist.com) (can anyone remind or direct me to some better sites with $/year sales?)
I asked Jonae if there were any other ICEs being marketed by other companies. She said that levofloxicin is a single isomer (antibiotic) of offloxicin (sp?) that J&J is marketing. She estimated the market for levofloxicin is $700 million. What they gained with the ICE was more flexibility of usage, better side effect profile, etc. I couldn't find anything resembling offloxicin in the top 200 list at RxList.com--perhaps it is no longer on the market.
Also she said that SEPR passed on the patent for the single isomer version of thamilomide, thinking the market would be too small. The ICE of thamilomide is used to treat leprosy. Don't know the pharmaceutical company there.
And she mentioned that Astra is in Phase III with the single isomer version of Prilosec.
And that seemed to be about it for market experience of (non-SEPR) single isomer pharmaceuticals.
SEPR has caught a wave here--that's the image that comes repeatedly to my mind. It's a big wave, hasn't really hit the beach yet, and they are riding it well--and let's say they are dominating it. [I'll review that metaphor every couple of years and see how it has fared.] In other words, the proof of SEPR's strategy is not truly in the marketplace yet as so few single isomer drugs are being marketed. But in the meantime they have pretty much had their pick of the drugs on the marketplace whose single isomer or active metabolite they wished to patent and pretty much locked up the future of these drugs.
And I am reassured by chemists and pharmacists who post on the threads with utter confidence and knowledgeability that ICEs are the--beg your pardon--the wave of the future.
Good weekend everyone,
j'fir |
