Biotech News: Provenge for Prostate Cancer, Tysabri for M.S.

J.P. Morgan is hosting its big drug-industry conference this week in San Francisco. Here are a couple tidbits from the first few days:

Sales of the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri topped $1 billion last year, Biogen Idec said today, and the number of patients taking the drug neared 50,000.

On the one hand, that’s notable, given that the drug (which Biogen co-markets with Elan) was pulled from the market in 2005 because of safety concerns. On the other hand, Biogen recently said its CEO will step down later this year, a move that Dow Jones Newswires said was linked in part to concerns about Tysabri’s growth trajectory. The CEO, James Mullen, will be speaking at the conference at 4:30 Pacific time today. You can tune in online.

Dendreon now has about $600 million in cash, which came largely from a supplemental stock offering in December. Dendreon has had a long road trying to win FDA approval for Provenge, a vaccine intended to treat advanced prostate cancer; a decision from the FDA is expected by May 1.

The vaccine is tailored to each patient; manufacturing it is a complex chore that involves taking cells from the patient and shipping them to the company for processing. The company is using some of its cash to speed up its build-out of manufacturing facilities. Here’s the Dow Jones Newswires story on what the CEO said yesterday; here’s a Webcast of the presentation.

Photo: Associated Press