Irvine-based Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. is hoping to revive a well-traveled cancer drug it recently obtained sole rights to.
Zevalin is used for treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. Spectrum is the fourth company to own the drug since it was approved in 2001.
But Spectrum faces a challenge with Zevalin, according to an article on TheStreet.com.
“Zevalin has been a commercial bust, to put it mildly,” author Adam Feuerstein said.
Last year, the drug’s sales fell 35% to $11 million.
“Three different companies have tried to make Zevalin into a meaningful commercial product, and none has succeeded,” Feuerstein said.
Zevalin’s previous owners include Idec Pharmaceuticals, its successor, Biogen Idec Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., and Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics Inc. Spectrum recently acquired 100% of Zevalin’s sales and marketing rights that previously were in a venture between itself and Cell Therapeutics.
Zevalin’s had a tough time for several reasons, according to Feuerstein.
One, he said, is that it’s radioactive. Doctors and patients have to go through a long checklist of precautions and pretreatment steps before it can be administered.
Feuerstein wasn’t entirely negative. Spectrum is taking steps that could help the drug succeed, such as getting Food and Drug Administration approval to promote it to more patients and establishing reimbursement standards with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, he said.
Reimbursement issues have been one of the hang-ups with the drug, “so oftentimes doctors actually lose money when prescribing Zevalin,” Feuerstein said.
If Zevalin succeeds, Spectrum, which counted a recent market value of about $60 million, will have the potential for “significant upside,” Feuerstein said.
But “at this point, investors aren’t exactly beating down Spectrum’s doors to own the stock,” he said.
Skepticism about Zeva-lin is running high, “and rightly so, given the drug’s history,” Feuerstein said.
Device Makers Highlighted
A number of Orange County drug and device makers will gather in Irvine at the end of the month to showcase themselves to potential investors and others.
The event, the Orange County Innovation Showcase, is April 30 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. Overall, more than 75 companies will present products and technologies to some 250 business leaders and venture capitalists.
Octane, a booster group that supports technology and biotechnology companies, is hosting the event.
Participating companies run the gamut.
Large, publicly traded companies such as drug maker Allergan Inc. and heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp., both of Irvine, will be present. Robert Grant, president of the Allergan Medical unit, is a featured speaker at the luncheon.
I-Flow Corp., a Lake Forest maker of pain-relief pumps, also is among the participants, along with Bausch & Lomb Inc., which has an eye surgery unit in Aliso Viejo.
Among smaller, private companies, California Stem Cell Inc., an Irvine developer of treatments for spinal cord injuries and other ailments, will be represented.
Researchers Study Addiction
University of California, Irvine, re-searchers said they found that blocking melanin-concentrating hormone, a hormone related to regulating hunger, can limit cocaine cravings.
Researchers Olivier Civelli and Shinjae Chung found that MCH works with dopamine in the brain’s pleasure center to create an addictive response to cocaine use. They found that blocking MCH limits cravings for the drug.
The study is the first to detail the interaction of MCH and dopamine, a neurotransmitter that’s essential to normal central nervous system functioning, in cocaine addiction. In a release, Civelli said he believed the findings may lead to new treatment to break cocaine addiction.
Study results appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Grants from the National Institutes of Health supported it.
Bits and Pieces:
Irvine eye device maker Visiogen Inc. said it formed a European subsidiary and released its Synchrony accommodating intraocular replacement lens in Europe. Visiogen Europe GMBH is based in Karlsruhe, Germany Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton will inaugurate its new president, Kevin Alexander, on Saturday. Alexander, who was most recently with Ferris State University in Michigan, replaces Lesley Walls CombiMatrix Corp., a medical testing company with an operation in Irvine, no longer is part of Newport Beach-based Acacia Research Corp., as an item in the March 30 column indicated. Acacia sold off its investment in CombiMatrix in 2007 EDI-Health Group Inc., an Irvine medical software company, said it was named a “top clearinghouse” by National Electronic Attachment Inc. EDI said it received the award for registering the most new offices for its products … Amerita Inc., an Irvine-based provider of drug infusion services, said it received contracts from Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc.
