Immulogic was a promising biotech a few years back. They had developed a line of injectible allergy vaccines, that they partnered with MKC, soon to be Hoechst (SEPR's partner for Allegra). Eventually, Hoechst backed out, even though trials seemed to show some efficacy. The company held on a couple years after that, but couldn't find new partners, apparently decided it couldn't market the drugs themselves, and finally liquidated.
Not sure of the specific mechanism of action, which was why I asked if it had relevance to the ongoing discussion here on the IgE blockers. One lesson from the Immulogic story, I think, is that a specific drug targeted at a specific allergen --as their vaccines were-- is a much less marketable product than drugs that treat general allergy symptoms. Identifying whether a patient reacts to dust, mites, cat hair, ragweed, whatever, is time-consuming and expensive, and then the whole injection procedure will also try the patient, as some allergy sufferers here have said. Much better for both doctor and patient is the simple diagnosis, "you have an allergy", and the simple prescription, "take these pills".
Again, some one with more facts might want to comment on whether this is relevant to the IgE story, which, in turn, may or may not be relevant to SEPR. |
