PTN off 20% due to high dropout rate in ED study:
>>NEW YORK -- Palatin Technologies Inc. (AMEX:PTN - News) shares plunged 20% Monday after the development-stage company reported on a one-month clinical trial of its proposed treatment for erectile disfunction administered by a nose spray.
Chief Executive Carl Spana said the trials of the product, its lead drug candidate, were encouraging and investors may have misunderstood elements of the report.
Safety and efficacy results to date have been "extremely competitive" with alternate medications now on the market, Mr. Spana said.
The company will launch a similar, three-month trial of the drug in 2004, and Palatin hopes to commercialize the drug in doses of five milligrams to 10 milligrams. At those levels, about 5% of patients discontinued the drug because of side effects.
But the study, which aimed to set effective dosages, also found that at 15 milligrams to 20 milligrams, 12% of patients discontinued because of side effects. Several 1997 trials of sildenafil, the generic name for Viagra, found less than 10% of patients discontinuing because of side effects.
The rate of side effects confused investors, Mr. Spana said.
Investors "got spooked" by the Palatin study, which contained essentially positive news, Matthew Kaplan, biotech analyst for Punk Ziegel & Co. said. Mr. Kaplan owns shares in Palatin but doesn't cover the company for Punk, which has no investment-banking business with Palatin.
Palatin aims to use marketing and manufacturing alliances with other pharmaceutical companies to produce products for sale. Palatin is also developing LeuTech, a radio-labeled monoclonal antibody for imaging and diagnosing infections, and expects final U.S. regulatory approval in the first half of 2004.<<
If PTN intends to market the product at the lower doses, then I agree that there shouldn't really be a problem. The 10mg dose hit all the endpoints. Maybe this really is buying opportunity, unlike most firesales. Rick is probably the only one who has the background to comment, both because of his credentials, and the fact that he has followed the company to varying degrees, while none of the rest of us have, to my knowledge.
Cheers, Tuck |
