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Biotech / Medical : Sepracor-Looks very promising -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Miller who wrote (2853)	5/19/1999 3:38:00 PM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10280

Ok, here is some more stuff from my illegible notes, so believe this at your own risk: Claritin II NDA 4th quarter. They think there'll be a major effort by SGP to switch people to the new formulation. 800-900 people in ICE oxybutinin trial ("octopus trial" because of 8 arms). They clearly believe they have something good here. Sustained release also under development (to compete with Alza's drug, I assume). Prozac II - 5HT2a and 5HT2c (obesity) - not the same as parent because dosage of this isomer can be 10x dose you get in regular racemic Prozac. Obesity and anxiety key areas. norcisapride - no QT prolongation, even at 30-40X dose of parent. "Likely to be more efficacious." J&J advancing in a "committed way." Pretty upbeat on R,R formetorol. If successful would be only 1 per day long-acting inhaler. (Serevent is 2x day). Combined with quick onset could make it very desirable. (I think this could easily be a $500m drug or more. There's no generic, so only competition is Serevent. This is another under-appreciated drug candidate that could practically justify their market cap. by itself.) Already in clinic with sustained release oral Xopenex. Cardura - suggested their ICE avoids hypotension which is significant side effect. At this point they have 15-18 serious drug candidates. NCEs: "Serious progress" in anti-infectives, (vancomycin resistant staph) but no drug candidate yet. 6 new drugs into clinic in '99. 13 drugs or NDAs by 2002. Their R&D spending in '99 around $130m, partners' spending on their behalf > $500m. Burn around $100m. Emphasized short period from IND to NDA. Warned that at "some point" one of their drugs might fail. (There isn't anything I've noticed they've stopped talking about, which is often the early-warning sign of a problem). In general, they say they would get marketing partners for a drug only after the NDA is submitted. Based on this, I wouldn't expect anything for nora until next year. Peter