Doug, I follow LGND more closely than QLTIF. However, I have a couple
of articles. Here's one on sales that came out last year:
5/16/95 =Quadra Logic Sees First Photofrin Sales In 1995
By Tamsin Carlisle Dow Jones Staff Reporter VANCOUVER -DJQuadra Logic Technologies Inc. (QLTIF) expects to receive $3 million (U.S.) to $4 million in revenues this year from the first sales of its cancer drug Photofrin, says Randal Chase, the company's recently appointed president and chief executive. Chase says he expects Photofrin sales to start in Japan, Holland and Canada during 1995. He predicts that in 1996, Quadra will start collecting revenues from U.S. sales of Photofrin. Chase tells Dow Jones the company recently completed formal responses to questions the U.S. Food and Drug Administration raised in relation to Quadra's filing of a Pre-Marketing Application to use Photofrin - a light-activated drug - in conjunction with laser technology for treating certain kinds of cancer, including esophageal (throat) cancer. ''We remain very optimistic about U.S. approval for the esophageal indication in 1995,'' he says. Chase says he's also ''optimistic'' that Quadra will obtain approval for the drug in Italy. He said further regulatory applications for Photofrin in Germany and France have reached the stage where Quadra is responding to regulators' questions. Quadra's new chief executive says that since joining the company last November, he has directed his efforts towards ''initiating commercialization'' of Quadra's first generation of pharmaceutical products, while moving the company away from its previously exclusive focus on research. ''When I first looked at the company, I saw it as a football game in which there were five balls at the five-yard line and none in the end-zone, and that means no points,'' Chase says.
(MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 05-16-95 8:07 AM
5/16/95 Quadra Logic Interview -2-: Developing Desk-Top Laser
Quadra Logic Technologies Inc. (QLTIF) president and chief executive Randal Chase says the Vancouver biotechnology concern has moved well beyond its starting point as a company with a single promising product. He says that besides pursuing commercialization of Photofrin, the only drug for which it has so far won regulatory approval, Quadra also is developing other light-activated drugs that potentially could broaden the health-care applications of ''photodynamic therapy'' (the use of laser beams to activate tissue-destroying drugs at specific sites in the body where pathology exists). Chase adds that Quadra concurrently is developing laser devices for drug activation that could be used in doctors' offices. ''We want to move from the hospital situation to individual out-patient treatment. We have developed a prototype device that's in clinical trials that costs about $5,000 (U.S.), weighs two to three pounds and plugs into regular wall current,'' he says. Chase says he doesn't foresee the portable device initially being used to treat cancer, but that it might be used by dermatologists in conjunction with one of Quadra's second generation drugs, ''BPD.'' He says BPD is being tested as a potential treatment for psoriasis, a widespread chronic skin disorder, among several other posssible applications for the drug that aren't cancer-related. In the field of cancer treatment, Quadra is also attempting to broaden its medical reach by developing light-activated drug treatments for early-stage cancers and pre-cancerous conditions, Chase says. ''Managing this stage (of cancer) is clearly in the best interest of patients. It's also in the best interests of health-care systems,'' he comments. Quadra doesn't plan to make direct contact with health-insurance concerns, but instead has begun developing partnerships with companies that, among other things, could approach insurers on Quadra's behalf, Chase says. ''It's one of the reasons we're seeking partners,'' he says.
(MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 05-16-95 8:21 AM
5/16/95 =Quadra Logic Interview -3-: Spending Cut By Roughly 20%
Money management is another ''key strategic issue'' for Quadra Logic Technologies Inc. (QLTIF), says Randal Chase, the company's president and chief executive. He says Quadra currently has C$28 million cash on hand, and has reduced its average monthly expenditures by around 20% to about C$1 million from between C$1.2 million and C$1.3 million in 1994. ''We want to avoid being dependent on raising external equity in tough times,'' Chase says. As reported, Quadra said in its 1994 annual report that it plans to spend less on research and development this year than in 1994. It said the planned spending cut was in response to setbacks the company experienced last year in its efforts to develop revenue streams from commercial drug sales. Commenting on his plans for slower research and development spending, Chase says he felt Quadra had to be ''appropriately cash conservative.'' He says the company also is seeking strategic partnerships in part as a means of managing its expenses. Under its recent marketing agreement with Ligand Pharmaceutical Inc., for instance, Quadra received an up-front payment for Canadian marketing rights to Photofrin and will also receive ''milestone payments'' in addition to 32.5% of gross sales, Chase says. |
