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San Diego Medical Conference Highlights Research of Blood-Related Cancers

Posted on: Monday, 6 December 2004, 18:00 CST

Dec. 4--Scientists and biotechnology executives are gathering in San Diego today for a prestigious medical meeting that showcases the latest research and treatments in blood-related cancers.

The meeting of the American Society of Hematology, or ASH, which runs through Tuesday at the San Diego Convention Center, is expected to draw about 20,000 researchers, executives and Wall Street analysts. Scientists will unveil the latest clinical data on experimental and established drugs to treat lymphoma, leukemia and other blood-related conditions.

ASH is the largest medical meeting on blood-related cancers and the last big medical conference of the year. It's considered second in importance among medical meetings to the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Wall Street analysts and venture capitalists use ASH and other major medical meetings to sift through data and find promising companies that may be developing potential blockbuster drugs.

"This is a major forum for the drug industry, particularly the biotechnology industry," said John McCamant, editor of The Medical Technology Stock Letter. "Biotech has done a better job historically in developing treatments for blood cancers, which were once considered a niche market."

The niche market status changed in 1997, when San Diego's former Idec Pharmaceuticals and San Francisco's Genentech won approval for Rituxan, a drug to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. What was expected to be a drug that generated $200 million to $300 million in annual sales has grown into a $1 billion-plus franchise, McCamant said.

Unlike in some years, the conference isn't expected to produce a major research event that could cause stock prices in the biotech sector to dramatically rise or fall. But there will be some closely watched research updates from select companies, including New Jersey-based Celgene Corp., which is presenting data from its Revlimid study.

Last month, TheStreet.com, a financial news site, reported that there have been several deaths in a Phase 2 study of Revlimid, a drug being tested to treat myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer-like bone marrow disease. Celgene has acknowledged but downplayed the deaths, maintaining that the data safety monitoring board that oversees the study would stop the clinical trial if Revlimid posed a major risk.

The company plans to use the Phase 2 data to seek early approval for Revlimid from the Food and Drug Administration, but if the deaths appear to be linked to the drug the likelihood of approval appears remote, according to some analysts.

"It is a potential controversy for Celgene, and they will have to shed some light on it," McCamant said.

Companies such as Biogen Idec, formed last year from the merger of Idec and Massachusetts-based Biogen, will present data on approved drugs Rituxan and Zevalin, which could support extended use in established or new disease markets.

San Diego biotech Favrille will present data on its therapeutic cancer vaccine FavId, which is being tested in conjunction with Rituxan as a treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

And San Diego's Maxim Pharmaceuticals will present Phase 3 data on its drug Ceplene in combination with interleukin-2 as a potential treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. The company has said that the drug offers longer disease-free survival for patients already in remission. Earlier, Ceplene failed in Phase 3 studies as a treatment for skin cancer.

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(c) 2004, The San Diego Union-Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

DNA, BIIB,

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

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