Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. said testing on rats for its drug Rolontis produced promising data and that it’s begun further work on animals to back its plan to file for Food and Drug Administration approval next year.
Spectrum, which started in Irvine, is now based in Henderson, Nev. The biotechnology company still maintains a significant presence in Irvine comprising of a 56,000-square-foot administrative and research and development facility.
Rolontis is intended to treat chemotherapy-induced neutropenia—an abnormally low white blood cell count. The drug is in a third phase clinical trial that started early last year, comprising of approximately 580 patients with breast cancer.
It’s based on a drug platform called LAPScovery—Long Acting Protein/Peptide Discovery—owned by Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a global pharmaceutical and ingredients firm in Seoul. Hanmi says its technology is meant to prolong the effects of drugs and thereby reduce treatment dose and frequency, which can then lower a drug’s “adverse event rates” and improve its efficiency.
Spectrum holds worldwide rights of Rolontis, excluding Korea, China and Japan.
It lost $68.5 million last year on revenue of $146.4 million and traded recently at a $501 million market cap. Hanmi earned $20.4 million on annual revenue of $772.3 million and traded recently at a $2.8 billion market cap.
Spectrum markets six oncology and hematology products for different types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, advanced metastatic colorectal cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and multiple myeloma; company media materials say the drugmaker has “an advanced stage pipeline that has the potential to transform the company.”
The FDA in November denied Spectrum’s new-drug application for Qapzola, which is intended to treat bladder cancer. Spectrum said it’s looking into a new, smaller study to replace the phase-three work that had backed the application.
Innovators Add to HR Work
Innovation Institute LLC in La Palma added two firms to buttress its work in executive search and workforce management.
The for-profit institute is owned by five nonprofit health systems and hospitals, including Providence St. Joseph Health in Irvine and Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange.
It’s led by President and Chief Executive Joe Randolph.
Its work includes a Newport Beach lab that develops ideas for the healthcare industry, a healthcare venture capital fund, and an enterprise development group.
The latter runs for-profit healthcare product and service providers—construction, property management, medical equipment and other areas—that bring cash flow to fund the institute’s overall goal of funding nonprofit innovation.
It acquired inHealth Strategies, which crafts employee health and wellness programs, in Baton Rouge, La. and added executive coaching company O’Brien Group in Cincinnati in which O’Brien contributed “controlling interest in their company in exchange for future growth and ability to scale their business,” according to Randolph. The new additions bring the EDG stable to 15 firms.
O’Brien complements two existing EDG companies: compensation and benefits adviser FutureSense in San Rafael and healthcare executive search firm Summit Talent Group in Columbia, Md.
Randolph said he is interested in adding more portfolio companies to EDG, including hospital equipment repair service providers.
inHealth grew out of work at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, also based in Baton Rouge.
The health system is a third owner of Innovation Institute; the other two are Bon Secours Health System in Marriottsville, Md., and Avera Health in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Play in Texas
Auxilio Inc. in Mission Viejo this month named Theresa Meadows to its board of directors.
The company provides IT security consulting and print management that it says cuts costs for hospitals and health systems. Meadows is senior vice president and chief information officer at Cook Children’s Health Care System in Fort Worth, a nonprofit system with hospitals, physicians, home healthcare, a health plan, a foundation and 60 primary, specialty and urgent care locations in Texas.
Auxilio shares spiked 20% in the two sessions after the appointment and traded recently at a $53 million market cap.
Bits & Pieces
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Tustin said work with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center researchers on phosphatidylserine-targeting antibodies decreased tumor size without off-target toxicities. … Hoag Wound Care Center in Newport Beach was honored for above-average healing rates by Healogics Inc., a wound care company in Jacksonville, Fla.
