Hepatitis B-fighting Viramidine isn’t the only drug that Costa Mesa-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is banking on to boost its sales and profits.
“Our second largest and probably one of our more exciting pipeline products is Retigabine,” said Wesley Wheeler, Valeant’s president, North America, and global commercial development. “Retigabine is a novel product in the treatment of epilepsy.”
Valeant started Retigabine’s third-phase trials in July, so it’s a while off from being sold.
If Retigabine pans out, it opens up a large market for Valeant. Wheeler estimated that the epilepsy treatment market is $8 billion a year and growing about 15% to 20% annually.
“It’s a huge, huge area of medical research,” Wheeler said. “(Retigabine) has a new mechanism of action that nobody else has.”
Valeant gained Retigabine in February through its $280 million acquisition of San Diego’s Xcel Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Other Valeant pipeline candidates include Zelapar, a treatment for Parkinson’s disease that is awaiting regulatory approval “any day,” Wheeler said.
Zelapar is a pill that can be used in combination with other medications to treat the condition, which is characterized by bodily tremors.
Late last month, Valeant reported positive clinical data for another pipeline product, pradefovir, which will be used to treat hepatitis C, a potentially fatal liver disease.
And Valeant’s even delving into the somewhat exotic with its pipeline.
Its Valeant Canada unit markets Cesamet, a cannabinoid, or synthetic chemical that is based on tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana known as THC.
Cesamet, which Valeant acquired from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. last year, is used to treat nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients.
“This is a fantastic product. In Canada, it’s just flying out,I can’t make enough of it,” Wheeler said of Cesamet.
Valeant filed a regulatory application for Cesamet with the Food and Drug Administration last year, and is aiming to launch it in the U.S. this year.
There’s a drug called Marinol that’s similar to Cesamet in the U.S., Wheeler said.
Marinol is a prescription drug made by United Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Belgium’s Solvay SA. It’s approved by the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration to treat pain related to AIDS and HIV.
Valeant officials aren’t worried about any potential negative links between Cesamet and pot.
“(Cesamet’s) not addictive at all, so the hook is that it’s not THC,” Wheeler said. “It’s an analog of THC,it’s a different molecule.”
Estrogen, Heart Disease Link
University of California, Irvine researchers said they’ve identified how estrogen, one of the key hormones found in women, helps prevent heart enlargement.
Enlarged hearts are a condition often seen in women who have suffered heart attacks. The researchers said enlarged hearts provide evidence that hormone replacement therapy after menopause can help prevent certain types of cardiovascular disease in women.
Ellis Levin, a UCI endocrinology professor and doctor, and colleagues found that estrogen triggers molecular activity that blocks heart enlargement, which also is called cardiac hypertrophy.
Cardiac hypertrophy, a thickening of tissue in the heart’s ventricles, is seen in some 80% of people following heart attacks.
The study’s results appeared in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institute of Health supported the study.
On the Conference Beat
Orange County’s healthcare conference schedule last month touched on two disparate subjects.
Medsphere Systems Corp., a venture-backed medical software maker out of Aliso Viejo, hosted a conference that looked at how to improve healthcare quality reporting and tracking.
That conference’s speakers included Kenneth Kizer, a former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs director who is Medsphere’s chairman.
Scott and Steve Shreeve, Medsphere’s cofounders, developed OpenVista, Medsphere’s software, while on rotation at VA hospitals.
The OC chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, working with the UCI Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia, held a research conference in Irvine.
Conference topics included developing a vaccine for memory loss disorder, as well as other diagnosis and treatment options, and caregiving-related issues.
Sponsors included Ortho-McNeil Neurologics Inc., Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc. and a couple of OC-based companies,Irvine’s Allergan Inc. and Silverado Senior Living of San Juan Capistrano.
Bits and Pieces:
PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., Cypress, introduced a fee-for-service health plan under its Medicare Advantage banner. Plan premiums will range from no charge up to $45 a month. Besides California, PacifiCare has been approved to sell the plans in Illinois, Georgia and Arizona Blue Cross of California named several OC hospitals as “bariatric centers of excellence” based on cost and quality. Those selected were Chapman Medical Center and UCI Medical Center, Orange; Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center and Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, Fountain Valley … Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, said it won an award from the American Hospital Association for a program to improve the care of patients near the end of their lives or those with life-threatening conditions.
