Don't know anything about this journal and the stock they are promoting(personally wouldn't buy it with anyones money much less my own) but I did note with interest that this writer recognizes the positive results that Medimune has achieved against the major competition.
To OTC Journal Members:
How Much Does the Market Care About Treatments for Psoriasis?
As mentioned in our original profile of Astralis/Hercules Development, there are 17 other drugs designed to attack the cause of Psoriasis in various stages of the FDA Approval process.
The three leading candidates in Stage III clinical trials are:
Amevive- developed by Biogen
Xanelim- developed jointly by Genentech and XOMA
MEDI-507- developed by Medimunne
This past Friday there was news from XOMA and Genentech which gives us a glimpse as to the importance the market is placing on the development of drugs to treat Psoriasis.
Genentech and XOMA jointly annouced there would be a delay in the application for final approval of Xanelim. Manufacturing on a large scale was being moved from the small scale labs at XOMA to the larger manufacturing facilities at Genentech, and the FDA was requesting a study to confim the quality of the large scale manufacturing.
As a result of the announcement, XOMA (NASDAQ: XOMA) was down nearly 30% and lost $200 million in market capitalization. Biotech behemoth Genentech (NYSE: DNA) was down 4%.
Stocks of companies with competing products Medimmune (NASDAQ: MEDI) and Biogen (NASDAQ: BGEN) were both up on the news, 3.6% and 1.5% respectively.
It is clear the market is very interested in treatments for Psoriasis. There is currently no known drug commerically approved drug which causes clinical remission of Psoriasis, and the market is enormous for new entrants.
XOMA currently carries a $1/2 billion market capitalization with only about $12 million in annual sales. Therefore, the announcement of a significant delay in the development of Xanelim had a major effect on the value of the stock.
If Astralis/Hercules were to eventually achieve the same market capitalization as XOMA, the stock would be trading at about $18 per share.
Technology Differences
Most of the 17 drugs in the FDA approval process are derived from monoclonal antibodies. The three leading drugs; Amevive, Xanelim, and MEDI-507 are all monoclonal antibodies.
None of these drugs could be considered a true vaccine, as the introduction of anitbodies into the bloodstream will eventually cause the body to build up an immunity to the treatments.
Psoraxine, Astralis's drug, is truly a vaccine. Psoraxine is a peptide developed because Astralis has identified a gene. Therefore, there will be no build up of immunity in the body.
MEDI-507 is the leading candidate and most effective of the three drugs nearing the completion of the FDA Approval process. However, in clinical trials MEDI-507 was able to reduce the PASI value by 75% in 39% of cases. |
