UTHR--Bt alex brown excerpts
This morning, Stuart Rich, M.D., presented positive results of a Phase IIstudy of UT-15, United Therapeutics' breakthrough product to treat pulmonaryhypertension (PH)...
-- The study showed that UT-15 treatment resulted in an improvement in the gold-standard measurement of efficacy in PH trials: the distance a patient can walk on a treadmill in six minutes. Specifically, between baseline and week 8, mean walking distance increased with UT-15 (+28 m), while it declined with placebo (-6 m). In addition, pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), a measurement of strain on the heart, decreased an average of 4.9 units (20%) for UT-15-treated patients and increased 0.4 units for placebo-treated patients.
-- UT-15 was generally well tolerated. The most common adverse events were injection site pain and redness, which were adequately controlled with treatment. Importantly, this study demonstrated that UT-15 can be administered subcutaneously safely with desirable biological effects, eliminating the need for a central venous catheter that puts patients at risk of life-threatening infections, as required with Flolan, the only currently approved treatment for
advanced PH.
-- Based on our conversations with several UT-15 investigators, we believe that excitement is building for the product and that the market for UT-15 is considerably larger than that for Flolan, which currently sells nearly $100 million annually. These conversations reinforce our view of the $250-plus million sales potential for UT-15.
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