INTERVIEW: Israel's Pharmos Sees Better
Cancer Drug
JERUSALEM -- Pharmos Corp. (PARS) didn't set out to develop a more
effective cancer drug when it began working on a derivative of the current
first-line treatment for breast cancer. But that's what it thinks it has found,
Chairman Haim Aviv told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.
The stock surged 45% Tuesday to $7.25 from $5.00 on the Nasdaq stock
market on an exceptionally high trading volume of 20.6 million shares after
Pharmos said it received a U.S. patent for its Tamoxifen derivative. The
Pharmos drug is still is being tested on mice, though Aviv said he expects
to start human trials in early 2001 after raising nearly $10 million privately
in the past few weeks.
Pharmos, based in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, had initially expected
to develop a drug that reduced Tamoxifen's impairment of brain functions.
"We started to design a molecule that wasn't to be more effective (in
shrinking tumors), but had fewer side effects in terms of cognition and the
brain," Aviv said. "But we found out, surprisingly, that our family of
molecules isn't only ... less harmful to brain functions, they are more
effective on the tumor" - and not just breast tumors, but pancreatic cancer
and malignant melanoma as well.
The central nervous system impairment problem was solved by modifying
Tamoxifen so it doesn't penetrate the brain, he said. The unexpected
byproduct of efficacy against tumors derives from the fact that Pharmos'
Tamoxifen derivative starves off the blood supply to tumors that makes
them grow. This so-called antiangiogenic activity doesn't exist in standard
Tamoxifen doses, Aviv said.
A couple of years ago, another cancer drug developer, EntreMed Inc.
(ENMD), watched its shares shoot up 330% in a single day after the New
York Times reported that the company's cancer drug was successful in
animal tests. Last week, EntreMed said it received U.S. Food and Drug
Administration approval to test its anticancer molecule in humans.
Aviv thinks Pharmos is about a year behind rival EntreMed in developing a
cancer drug, but he says Pharmos may be able to catch up if it works
better. He also says Pharmos' drug molecules are easier to produce
because they are smaller and easier to administer and work with. "And
there is room for more than one drug," he said. "There are enough
patients."
Big pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Eli Lilly &
Co. (LLY) also have Tamoxifen derivatives, but Aviv says they penetrate
the brain and aren't as effective against tumors as Pharmos' drug.
It probably will take Pharmos two to three years before it can request
FDA approval for its cancer drug, Aviv said. He wouldn't speculate when
it might come to market.
Part of Pharmos' strategy is to bring the drug to market together with a
major pharmaceutical company, "but we prefer to strike a deal once the
product is more advanced, once the clinical effects are proved." No feelers
are out yet, he said.
Pharmos also produces drugs for eye infections and inflammations, and a
head trauma drug that is being studied by the U.S. Army for possible use
against nerve gas-induced brain damage.
Why the excitement on Nasdaq Wednesday? Aviv attributes it to Wall
Street's rekindled interest in biotechnology companies as Internet fever dies
down.
Wall Street "isn't hyping biotech, it is rediscovering biotech. And Pharmos,
as an interesting company that has drugs and a pipeline, is just worth $300
million, which is nothing," Aviv said. |
