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Biotech / Medical : Elan Corporation, plc (ELN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Qualified Opinion who wrote (3203)	9/20/2002 8:41:05 AM
From: tom pope	Respond to of 10345

From WSJ >>Inex Pharma Sees 'Opportunity' In Repartnering By ANDY GEORGIADES Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES TORONTO -- While having to find a new partner is typically seen as a step backwards for smaller biotechnology companies, Inex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (T.IEX) sees it as an opportunity. "Most companies never get their product back at late-stage when good things are happening. They typically get it back after a clinical trial has failed or something else has gone terribly wrong," David Main, the company's president and chief executive, told Dow Jones. However, that isn't the case for Inex, which has delivered positive clinical data and made a great deal of progress since signing a joint-venture commercialization agreement for its lead anti-cancer product, Onco TCS, with Elan Corp. (ELN) last year. Onco TCS is composed of the off-patent chemotherapy drug vincristine encapsulated inside the company's drug-delivery technology, which aims to increase the drug's efficacy and reduce toxicity. Last June, Elan announced a restructuring that will focus its efforts on three therapeutic areas unrelated to oncology - neurology, pain management, and autoimmune disease. That decision forced Inex to start searching for another partner. Inex is now negotiating with Elan to get back 100% of the rights to Onco TCS. "The only thing that we're negotiating is the purchase price of (Elan's stake) in the joint venture," he said, adding that the talks shouldn't take much longer. Inex will wait until it releases pivotal trial results before striking a new deal, he said. Data from a Phase II/III trial for relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkins lymphoma are due in late November. If the results are positive, they will form the basis for regulatory approval, which could come at the end of 2003 or early 2004, and a stronger partnership pact, he said. "The people we're focused on are the people who already have a presence, are already marketing and selling drugs, in the oncology area," he told Dow Jones Newswires. Given that the drug is at a later stage, the company should be able "to pick up increased value" in terms of milestone payments and licensing fees when it signs its new partnership, Main added. Though the market for relapsed agressive non-Hodgkins lymphoma is small, it isn't being served, hence the trial's fast-track status. Positive data from the trial will pave the way for additional approvals that will broaden Onco TCS's use, including for first-line aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, for which Onco TCS is in a Phase II trial