Very impressive data for sure. Hu5c8 is also known as Antova (Biogen).
Perhaps most interesting is the observation that adding "traditional" immunosuppressive therapy (steroids, FK506, etc) to the extended treatment with hu5c8 actually makes things *worse*. As Polly M. says in the commentary piece "If the promise of signal Two blockers holds up, the days of signal One blockers are numbered, and short." Traditional therapies are believed to block signal One, while 5c8 (and the IDEC antibody, for example) appear to block signal Two.
BUT, this is what most likely got IDPH moving *today*:
<<Idec Shares Rise as Cancer Drug Sales Seen Beating
Estimates
San Diego, June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Idec Pharmaceuticals
Corp. shares soared 15 percent amid expectations
second-quarter sales of the biotechnology company's
cancer drug Rituxan will beat analysts estimates.
Idec shares rose 7 9/16 to 58 in trading of 1.04 million,
more than twice the three-month daily average. It was the
stock's biggest one-day percentage gain in six weeks.
Shares in Idec have almost tripled since October as sales
of its Rituxan treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma beat
company and analyst forecasts. IMS Health Inc., a company
that provides data on drugs sales, will release data on
Rituxan's sales in April that some analysts say they expect
will beat forecasts. ''People are definitely starting to focus
on Rituxan sales again,'' said Lehman Brothers
biotechnology analyst Eric Ende. ''The number is expected
to be pretty strong.''
Rituxan, which was introduced in October 1997, last year
had sales of $162.6 million. That's a record for a cancer
treatment in its first year on the market.
Ende forecasts 1999 Rituxan sales of $242 million and he
expects them to peak at about $700 million.>>>
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