Biopicker, do you have the IMS data (e.g., new, refill, total, actual and adjusted), not only for Viracept, but also for the other PIs? If so, could you post, thanks. Btw, I suspect the actual scrips for Dec will be flat or down due to the holidays, but IMS publishes also an adjusted number to give a more reliable indicator of trends.
Was anyone else at the analyst presentation in SF? I thought it was a solid, informative job by the whole team. Especially impressive was the way Kent Snyder sifted through the Viracept sales data. Among the things he pointed out were Viracept market share varies significantly by city (and region I suppose), and by decile among the prescribing physicians ... hence lots of identified opportunity to increase share. For example, taking the PI prescriptions in deciles (ordering physicians by number of PI prescriptions written), the top prescribing physicians (are you listening Izzy and JLL?) write more scrips for Viracept than Crix - on the order of 36% of actual vs 35%. However, the ration slides on down to where the bottom decile prescibe Crix 2x more often (maybe 42 to 21% ... this is strictly from memory). This is of course a direct result of AGPH's targeting the high prescribers and opinion leaders, and MRK's marketing muscle among the casual PI prescribers.
Another source of optimism was the extensive market research AGPH has done on intent to prescribe among physicians ... Viracept stands out on intent to prescribe and intent to increase scrips.
Some solid information on AG3340 pre-clinical work and clinical plan ... these guys have really thought things through. I'll try to post some of that info later.
Peter |
