CEO outlines Vion Pharmaceuticals' strategy for the next few years
Alan Kessman, Vion Pharmaceuticals
twst.com
TWST: What’s gone on in the past couple of quarters that investors should be aware of (Nasdaq:VION)?
Mr. Kessman: One of the most important things is that we now have all three of our drugs in clinical development, which is certainly unusual for a company of our size. Our TAPET product is in both a Phase I intravenous trial and a Phase I intratumoral trial (direct injection). Triapine has moved into two Phase II trials and three Phase I combination trials. Finally, our Sulfonyl Hydrazine Prodrug (SHP) has moved into a Phase I clinical trial. We’ve opened a number of new trials and made progress. Triapine has moved along very aggressively. The TAPET trials have produced some very interesting information, especially from some recent research studies in dogs, which gives us increased encouragement to what we’re doing.
TWST: As we look out, what is going to be the strategy over the next two years for the company?
Mr. Kessman: One of the first things which came out of the most recent dog studies is the potential near-term of looking at whether there is any application for TAPET in the veterinary market and whether there is a potential relationship with one of the companies experienced in the veterinary market. There are not many drugs, if any, that have been designed for the veterinary market. What we’ve seen so far with the results to date in the dog studies, which were presented in a veterinary conference in Denver in May, is that people are requesting information from us about the potential of looking at this from a veterinary standpoint. We’re strategically looking at some kind of a partnership in the veterinary market to move forward. The second thing is that as we move forward with Triapine, and get some of the Phase II single agent results and Phase I combination results, as we get into the 2002 time frame, that Triapine would lend itself toward discussions from a partnership standpoint. So we think those are the first two things we need to look at from a partnering standpoint. Our ultimate goal is to hold onto the platform system in humans for TAPET as long as possible because we think that would give the greatest return to our shareholders.
TWST: As opposed to running out and licensing it immediately?
Mr. Kessman: Correct. We believe TAPET, as a platform system, will allow for multiple relationships with multiple companies. Therefore, if we license today, we would have difficulty holding onto the platform; whereas if we license as we get further down the road, we can license an individual application of TAPET with a specific drug and not license the platform per se. The second phase, as we move down the road, with the partnership in TAPET, would be to move “up the food chain” by considering that we could manufacture TAPET for the pharmaceutical companies and license the sales and marketing. The manufacturing of TAPET does not require a huge facility — a 20,000 square foot facility with sophisticated equipment could handle the requirements. It’s not hundreds of people but 10-30 people — a very small manufacturing group. So it’s not a major issue for us to do the manufacturing ourselves and basically hold onto the manufacturing profits.
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