Suddenly the street discovers the potential of a P38 inhibitor:
Scios, rivals race to transform arthritis treatment
- Feb 7, 2003 04:13 PM (Reuters)
- finance.lycos.com
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By Ransdell Pierson
NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A potential breakthrough
arthritis drug has raised the profile of Scios Inc., considered
a step ahead of rival drugmakers racing to develop similar
pills and to pit them against today's blockbuster injectable
treatments.
Shares of Scios (NASDAQ:SCIO) soared Friday on reports it is in
talks to be acquired by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and that J&J
might be willing to pay up to $2 billion for the Sunnyvale,
California-based biotech company.
Industry analysts said the immediate draw for J&J is Scios'
two-year-old drug for heart failure, called Natrecor, that is
expected to eventually garner annual sales of over $500
million.
But J&J would also acquire an experimental Scios pill for
rheumatoid arthritis, called SCIO-469, that could become a far
bigger product if it is approved. It is currently in Phase II
clinical trials and perhaps years away from proving whether it
is safe and effective.
The pill works by blocking the p38 kinase enzyme, whose
chemical messages stir up inflammation-causing proteins such as
tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and COX-2.
"The p38 kinase target is major, and most of Wall Street
hasn't woken up to that yet," said Richard Stover, an analyst
for Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder. "That therapeutic approach is
one of the most exciting things going on in the pharmaceutical
industry today."
Besides taming arthritis, Stover said p38 kinase drugs
might also prove effective in treating heart problems by
inhibiting C-reactive protein, an inflammation-causing
substance many doctors now believe is more harmful to the heart
than cholesterol.
"The Scios drug could become a $2 billion-a-year product in
the best-case scenario, if it is the first-approved p38 kinase
inhibitor and works against both TNF and COX-2," said SG Cowen
Securities analyst Philip Nadeau.
Many other drugmakers are in earlier stages of developing
p38 inhibitors to treat arthritis, including Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based biotech Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
(NASDAQ:VRTX), London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc (ISEL:GSK), Japanese
drugmaker Sankyo (TOKYO:4501) and Woburn, Massachusetts-based
biotech ArQule Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQL).
Safety problems, including toxicity to brain cells of
laboratory animals, have killed previous such drugs --
including one developed by Vertex.
"Although safety concerns have tripped up previous p38
candidates, there's a good chance somebody will get one of
these drugs to market. And that will cause a lot of
excitement," Nadeau said.
Rheumatoid arthritis, which affects an estimated one
percent of the population, is a genetic disease in which the
immune system becomes overstimulated and attacks the body's
joints.
Two of the best-selling drugs for the disorder are Amgen
Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMGN) Enbrel and Johnson & Johnson's Remicade, which
both target tumor necrosis factor and each have annual sales of
about $1 billion. Abbott Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:ABT) won approval
in December for Humira, an anti-TNF drug it expects will bring
in eventual annual sales of $1 billion.
Although highly effective, all three anti-TNF drugs must be
injected -- a hassle that could play to the favor of
more-convenient p38 kinase pills if any are approved.
Pharmacia Corp (NYSE:PHA)'s Celebrex and Merck & Co's (NYSE:MRK)
Vioxx, which have combined annual sales of more than $5
billion, both treat rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis by
blocking the COX-2 protein.
Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, is
caused by normal wear and tear of the joints.
(Additional reporting by Jed Seltzer and Toni Clarke)
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
The other known serious competitor in the P38 race not mentioned in this story is Boehringer Ingelheim.
Peter |
