SAN FRANCISCO Remember Zevalin? The once-trumpeted radioactive immune therapy for non-Hodgkin s lymphoma from IDEC Pharmaceuticals Inc. (now Biogen Idec Inc.) won approval in February 2002. Hopes ran high, with sales projections in the $500 million range, but performance fell short. Biogen Idec reported $18 million in worldwide sales last year, $16.4 million of that amount in the U.S. (BioWorld Financial Watch)
Gilead Sciences Inc.'s bid to win marketing approvals for Viread against hepatitis B virus in the U.S. and Europe could mean upside for the compound - which sold $154.9 million in the third quarter as an HIV therapy - that's been overlooked so far by Wall Street, and investors are due for a full look at the data from a pair of supporting trials early next month. (BioWorld Today)
ThromboGenics NV's licensing deal with Rhein Minapharma Biogenetics for preclinical THR-174 could bring a next-generation thrombolytic for developing countries, a cheaper therapy for heart attacks that's equivalent to the gold standard tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). (BioWorld Today)
