Posts tagged ‘Hematology Market’
ASH 2011 Poster Session
Two Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitors in clinical development (PCI-32765 & AVL-292) generated a lot of interest at the recent American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in San Diego.
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has been following BTK as a novel drug development target, and saw its potential in early data presented at ASH 2010 and ASCO 2011.
Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase is a critical kinase for lymphoma cell survival and proliferation. It plays an important role in B-lymphocyte development, differentiation and signaling. As Sally noted on Pharma Strategy Blog:
“It is a critical part of the BCL pathway that leads to cell proliferation, so targeting it leads to cell death or apoptosis.”
Sally’s insightful blog post goes into more detail on the Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase clinical data presented at ASH by Dr Susan O’Brien (MD Anderson Cancer Center).
A number of companies are now taking an interest in BTK inhibition. Johnson & Johnson announced a $1B licensing deal for PCI-32765 just prior to the meeting. Sally’s analysis of this was:
“Based on the data seen over the last two years, I thought they got a steal”
BTK inhibition looks to be a promising target for B-cell malignancies such as non-hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) & chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). This is good news for patients.
BTK inhibitors are a new class of targeted therapies that we can expect to hear more about in the future.
Earlier this summer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) announced a positive decision for Seattle Genetics’ Adcetris™ (brentuximab vedotin) in Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) and Analplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL).
As Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog reported earlier this week, Seattle Genetics has just received fast track approval from the FDA for Adcetris™, a CD30-directed antibody drug-conjugate.
Using the company announced price of $13,500 per dose, Sally in her blog post analyzed the clinical trial data and treatment regimens to come up with a likely cost for a course of treatment in the range of $94,500 – $121,500.
Sally goes on to note that the “overall treatment cost will therefore be typically less than the $120K cost of treatment for BMS’s ipilimumab (Yervoy) in metastatic melanoma.”
The clinical data for Adcetris™ is impressive, and patients will most certainly benefit from the availability of this new treatment. Adcetris™ is the first antibody drug conjugate (ADC) technology to come to market.
You can read more about Sally’s analysis of the Adcetris™ price and other ADC products in the pipeline such as Roche’s T-DM1 on Pharma Strategy Blog.
It takes desire, discipline and determination to blog regularly, and as a result many blogs fall by the wayside over time. However, Sally Church has been writing a blog on oncology, hematology, cancer science & biology, clinical trials and new product development for the past five years. It continues to go from strength to strength thanks to Sally’s passion for the area.
Sally recently announced on Pharma Strategy Blog that she had reached the 900 blog post milestone. In recognition of this, Sally took the time to answer the follow questions:
- Why do you blog?
- How do you decide what to write about?
- What makes a good blog post?
- Looking back on 900 posts – which posts are most memorable?
- What are your future goals for Pharma Strategy Blog?
You can find out Sally’s answers in the following video:
One of the trends we continue to see is the increased use of video for physician education, clinical trial recruitment and providing of healthcare information. Video lends itself well to a marketing strategy, not only does it engage on a personal level but facilitates the explanation of complex information.
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog highlights the social media strategy and video by Dr Anas Younes (@DrAnasYounes) from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.
As Sally notes, “slowly but surely, we are seeing more use of social media in one area where I really think it can help a lot – clinical trials.”
Dr Younes’ video explains the opportunity to participate in clinical trials with new agents to treat Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma (PTCL), a rare blood disease.
It is a short video well worth watching and forwarding on to others.