Harold,
The truth is that we are indeed still actively seeking a corporate partner for Hirulog. We have a couple of people in Business Development, including John Maraganore, PhD (scientist who developed Hirulog), who have been spending a significant amount of time over the past two years meeting with prospective licensees. There was a flurry of activity in the months after the program was halted in late '94, and again recently after the Phase II thrombolysis results were presented in March. We are, of course, disappointed that we haven't yet signed a deal, but we still may.
I think it is important to remember that Hirulog WORKS! In angioplasty, Hirulog worked as well as - although not significantly better than - Heparin, but with fewer bleeding complications. We felt that this profile was good, but not good enough for Biogen, given our need for drugs with large markets and clear therapeutic superiority.
As it turns out, Hirulog appears to work very well in thrombolysis, a second, larger indication. However, the competitive environment for anticoagulants has meanwhile changed significantly since the angioplasty Phase III trial results were presented: Centocor has announced some unexpectedly positive results from additional trials of ReoPro and stents have very rapidly penetrated the angioplasty market and have decreased the number of patients getting post-angioplasty restenosis. Both factors raise the hurdle for Hirulog. The time delay in finding a partner is also not positive; a partner would still be several years from the market upon completing a license.
Remember also that Biogen wrote off $25 million when we shut down the Hirulog program, so any deal would be upside. I think investment community expectations for such a deal are very low right now, so the announcement would probably not hurt the stock either!
Let me know if you have additional questions. I'll be on the road for the next week, but will check in when I return.
Rick Lundberg
Biogen Investor Relations |
