Baxter is a weird company, their Immuno division is even weirder. They have PC and APC on the shelves since the 1980s and their medical people didn't bother doing anything about the powerful proteins. It takes guts to bring a protein to the market, and some just don't have those.
Baxter, and others might be late now because rhAPC (and rhPC) could be deemed safer than plasma derived products by the FDA. It might be even true, although I'm not entirely convinced about the safety of rhAPC, as it could also have viruses and prions in it. I am not sure about transgenic PC (Red Cross) either. Yet, anyone who can make cheap plasma derived PC or APC could carve a good chunk out of this pretty decent market. Don't forget that rhAPC is the first, but probably not the biggest market for APC (rhAPC, transgenic APC or plasma derived APC). This drug is a very special and potent natural anticoagulant that should work in stroke, heart attack, all kinds of thrombosis. It clearly does in primate models. It could successfully compete with tPA, Abbokinase, Streptokinase, all heparins, RheoPro, and the rest of the pack. That's where the big potential for APC is, a patient population possibly reaching over 500 thousand a year. Sepsis is just the beginning with much less than 50,000 eligible patients.
I had several posts on this board about APC and PC vs. BPI, as well as Baxter, Lilly, etc. in 1999 and 1998, indicating my belief that APC was the next drug to make it. RK and others might remember.
By the way, when does the BPI base patent expire? |
