Zacks.com releases the latest Analyst Interview. Today’s interview is with senior analyst Jason Napodano, who discusses Xoma (Nasdaq: XOMA), Novartis (NYSE: NVS), Anesiva (Nasdaq: ANSV) and NeurogesX (Nasdaq: NGSX).
A synopsis of today’s Analyst Interview is presented below. The full article can be read at www.zacks.com.
You mentioned there were some up-and-coming biotechs that have intriguing products that are in development right now?
Yeah. I think the first one to talk about is Xoma (Nasdaq: XOMA). Xoma is a monoclonal antibody play. They’ve got great monoclonal antibody technology, and they’re developing a product right now called XOMA 052, which is a monoclonal antibody that targets IL-1. And it’s in phase-I trials for diabetes, but it’s also planned to have phase-I trials in rheumatoid arthritis, something called SJIA, which is systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and gout.
And so you take a very large opportunity like diabetes, and then you say, “Wow, it could also have a very large opportunity in rheumatoid arthritis or gout, and then more of a niche opportunity in SJIA, and you’ve got a potential blockbuster product on your hands, and its all being developed in phase-I by Xoma.
Xoma’s got another monoclonal antibody that targets CD40…in collaboration with Novartis (NYSE: NVS). It’s in phase-I for leukemia and myeloma, but Novartis and Xoma are planning to move it into another phase-I for lymphoma. And then, similar to that Rituxan molecule at Genentech that we talked about, there’s similarities between oncology targets and auto-immune targets that Xoma and Novartis believe it may have potential in things like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus or multiple sclerosis. That also has blockbuster indications if it can get to market in all those things we talked about.
We’re talking about phase-I testing, though, so a lot can happen between that time and going to market. So –
That’s a good point, but the important thing to note is as you have these so-called platform drugs, you only need to do so much phase-I testing. Phase-I testing is primarily your “find a dose/find a safety threshold.” Once the drug is moved forward in phase-I for diabetes, it may not be necessary to do a whole other phase-I for gout or rheumatoid arthritis. Once you have your phase-I “found your dose/found your safety” parameters in leukemia, you really don’t need to go back and do that all again for myeloma and lymphoma.
So it’s almost cheaper to develop the same drug for multiple indications, and it’s faster than to come at two different drugs for two different indications.
Let’s move onto another one of these companies.
I think there are two companies we can talk about together: Anesiva (Nasdaq: ANSV) and NeurogesX (Nasdaq: NGSX), two companies that are developing capsaicin-based products. Capsaicin is what’s found in chili peppers, the hot ingredient, but it’s also known to numb pain.
Anesiva is developing a phase II/III candidate called Adlea, a capsaicin-based product. NeurogesX is developing a mid-stage product called NGX-4010, which is another capsaicin-based product. Anesiva is going the injectible route; they’re taking a synthetic capsaicin and injecting it, and the indications that they are going after are mostly post-surgical pain.
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