This New Antidepressant Maker Has Lots of Folks Excited
October 26, 2010 by admin
Filed under News Stories
October 25th, 2010
Daily Finance
By: Gene Marical
Fighting depression, a highly prevalent and serious mood disorder that affects about 18.1 million adults in the U.S. is one of the largest markets in the pharmaceutical industry — and it’s still growing. More than 212 million antidepressant prescriptions were written last year, with 2009 antidepressant therapy sales totaling about $12 billion.
The major players in this market are the larger drugmakers, including Pfizer (PFE, through its recent purchase of Wyeth), Eli Lilly (LLY), Forest Laboratories (FRX), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Merck (MRK, through its acquisition of Schering-Plough).
To this impressive list of Big Pharma companies, add the name of a tiny and little-known biotech, Clinical Data (CLDA). Why? The young company has developed a potential blockbuster antidepressant called Vilazodone, which analysts expect will be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for marketing early next year.
Because of Vilazodone, the buzz is Clinical Data has become an attractive takeover target for any one of the major players in the field. Vilazodone, if approved by the FDA, will be the first new entry into the antidepressant market in more than 15 years. Its importance is enhanced by the fact that several of the existing therapies are due to lose their patent protection before long. The three drugmakers likely to be interested — and said to have had some talks with several Clinical Data executives — are Eli Lily, Forest Labs and Pfizer.
No Impact on Sexual Function
What’s so special about Vilazodone when compared with the rest of the crowd? One major difference: Unlike its rivals, Vilazodone doesn’t suppress or affect a patient’s sexual function. That is a very important difference, indeed, according to industry analysts.
“Patients with depression usually experience difficulties with sexual functioning, which tends to be worsened by antidepressant treatments,” notes Chrystyna Bedrij, biotech analyst at Griffin Securities. Vilazodone, she says, is “neutral” on that particular issue, because it doesn’t harm a patient’s sexual ability. It neither enhances nor suppresses sexual functions, she explains.
Dr. Carol Reed, chief medical officer of Clinical Data, confirms that Vilazodone has a dual mechanism of action, which combines “selective serotonin reuptake inhibition” and “partial 5-HT receptor agonist” to reduce the impact on sexual function as measured by validated scales. Study findings corroborate, she says, that “there was no impairment of sexual function.”
The serotonin inhibitors, which enhance the availability of synaptic serotonin — a key brain chemical — are approved as safe and effective treatment for depression, says Reed. And the 5-HT receptor agonists have also been shown to be effective for treating mood disorders, including depression and anxiety, she adds.
Significantly Upbeat Results
Given the potential worth of Vilazodone’s lack of effect on sexual functioning, “it is positively differentiated from other antidepressants in the market,” says Griffin’s Bedrij. So, she rates Clinical Data’s stock a buy based alone on the appeal and potential value of Viladozone. She puts the intrinsic worth of Clinical Data, currently trading at $18 a share, at $33 a share.
Although no one can predict what the FDA will do, the betting is that Vilazodone, in all likelihood, will win approval because it has completed all the required clinical trials with significantly upbeat results on efficacy and safety, argues Bedrij. And Clinical Data’s new-drug application for Viladozone is supported by data from nearly 3,000 patients who “received the drug safely with a low occurrence of side effects,” notes the analyst.
All the other seven Wall Street analysts who track Clinical Data also rate the stock a buy, including those from Piper Jaffray, Roth Capital Partners and BMO capital Markets.
