Forum Archive Index - April 2002

[Derek <dkw@paradise.net.nz>]

Quote from SharesWeekly, beginning of March 2002, note the last sentence.

"Last month Peptech finally received the news everyone was waiting for. The 
US Patent
Office granted Peptech a "notice of allowance" for its TNF antibody patent 
in the US.
This means companies with TNF antibody drugs on the market, such as 
Centocor, and
companies with TNF antibody drugs in development, such as Abbot 
Laboratories, will
be required to pay Peptech royalties for the next 11 years. What is also 
good news for
Peptech is that it has already settled with these two groups.

The patent is a divisional patent and is not as broad as that granted in 
Europe. This
means companies such as Immunex, which has developed TNF drugs that are not
complete antibodies, are not covered under this divisional patent. However, 
Peptech is
looking to submit additional divisional patent applications in the US to 
broaden cover
to all TNF drugs, although the possibility of this being granted is remote."

Actually I think that PTD could be good buying soon, The Abbot drug looks like
be a real winner and if PTD does miss out on patents that cover Immunex's 
'Enbrel'  etc
it may not be the end of the world.

My only misgiving is related to the immune suppression that these anti-TNF 
drugs have,
I can't help wonder if their long term use will see an increase in cancer 
in users.
clinical trials are all very well, but they may not run long enough to pick 
up such
an effect. To date however there are no statistics to suggest a problem, see
http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/08/17/arthritis.drug.safety/

But there is this -
"The FDA did, however, tell Immunex to study Enbrel's long-term effects,
  in case it affects the immune system enough to increase patients' risk of
infections or possibly even cancer."
(from http://acmi.canoe.ca/HealthNews/981103_arthritis.html )

Time will tell,

Regards,
Derek

disc. Not currently holding PTD


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