Interesting H& Q presentation from CAT.
Highlights -
6 Mabs in clinicals (more than either ABGX or MEDX). Three are outside funded, with milestones & royalties in "mid single digits". Three are in-house, or 50/50 partnered.
D2E7 (Abbott) - (RA) expects this to file for approval q2 this year.
J695 (Abbott) - mid P11 in RA & Crohns (?). Can't say much as it's pharma.
Anti - BLyS (HGSI) - significant as it's the first Mab from HGSI to go into clinicals, and CAT are "in direct competition" here with ABGX and MEDX. (nb they are now "2 for 2", with the Trail-R1 Mab being selected.)
CAT-152 - multicentre P111. Would have liked to hear questions on this in the breakout (anyone there ????), but seemed quite enthusiastic. Hope to have it on the market in '05.
CAT-192 (50/50 with GENZ) Anti - TGFB1 (antifibrotic). Going for sclerodoma, as orphan indication. Again, aiming for '05/06.
CAT- 213 (anti eotaxin) Severe allergy. Will be end of year before they know its potential. Being trialled in rhinitis sufferers.
Much stress was put on the difference between them & ABGX/MEDX. Gave the example of BLyS, where they selected 10k Mabs for screening. Called the mouse approach a "random process", but "of course it's cheaper...".
(Could either of the other two look to buy AMEV ??)
Said that there may well be room in the market for all of "the big three" ("we can all develop Mabs...it's a big market"), but doubted that any of the smaller efforts would get far.
They are the only Mab company with access to both the HGSI and INCY database.
Mentioned Elan (neuro), GENZ (looking at another Mab for fibrosis) IMNX (IL-18 and CD30 ligand), Amrad (nflammatory target), Merck (HIV)
Forward look expects burn of £30-35m this year. Revenues from D2E7 if approved will make a big dent in costs, but doesn't expect profitability til '05/06.
Expect plenty of newsflow on CAT 152 & 213, in addition to D2E7 this year. |
