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Local Firms Leery of Committing to SARS Research

Local Firms Leery of Committing to SARS Research

Biotech: Long-Term Need For Virus Treatment Raises Questions About Investment

BY MARION WEBB

The SARS public-health crisis has led a few local biotechnology companies to set up some of the first programs to investigate the disease.

But nobody seems to want to fully commit to fight severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has sickened 5,865 people and killed 391 people worldwide.

That is according to May 1 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some people in the local biotech industry say they won’t pursue the costly development of vaccines, diagnostic tests, and treatments until several key questions have been answered.

They don’t want to commit company resources to SARS programs, but instead, hope for government funding for R & D; efforts.

The uncertainty over the continued spread of SARS, and the associated need for future treatments, makes it a speculative proposition for biotech investors, many said.

“The only places (I see interest for investors) is in companies that have a broad platform of technologies to detect infectious agents (to which) SARS could be added,” said Dr. John Reed, president and chief executive of the Burnham Institute, a world-renowned basic research center located in La Jolla.

David Hale, president and CEO of local biotech firm CancerVax Corp., a cancer vaccine maker agreed.

” One could easily plug in SARS to detect infectious agents, but to make a drug or vaccine are not insignificant investments,” said Hale, who is also the chairman of Biocom, the local life science industry association.

Regulatory issues also remain.

Companies still await U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines on how they plan to review SARS-related applications and whether the agency would grant firms expedited review of new diagnostics, potential vaccines, and treatments, he said.

Julie Gerberding, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said last week the health agency has been approached by dozens of companies seeking samples of the virus for testing. But Gerberding also said it’s likely to take time for anybody to create a test the agency will like.

Vying For Position

Diagnostic firms, which generally take less time and money to bring products to market than drug developers, are likely to address the SARS epidemic first in the marketplace.

German biotech Artus GmbH said it will be first in distributing a test that can identify the presence of SARS in sputum or a stool sample.

Swiss-based Roche Holding’s F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. hopes to launch its test to detect SARS in July.

Some local biotechs have also made some cautious announcements.

San Diego-based Gen-Probe Inc.’s chief scientist, Dr. Daniel Kacian, responded to an analyst inquiring about the firm’s plans as follows: “It’s a little early to determine how the SARS epidemic will develop (or if it’s going to) develop at all.”

Kacian also told analysts during an earnings conference call last week that Gen-Probe , which already has tests to screen donor blood for viruses causing West Nile disease and AIDS among others , would be “very well” positioned to develop a test to detect SARS.

Carlsbad-based Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s chief financial officer, Lynne Parshall, said its antisense technology would also lend itself to developing diagnostics or therapeutics.

Isis’ Portland, Ore.-based antisense rival AVI BioPharma Inc., said last week it has an experimental drug that may be adapted for use against SARS.

Catherine Charles, senior scientist at Perlan Therapeutics, a small biotech in San Diego, said when the CDC announced the sequence of the SARS coronavirus genome, she immediately downloaded the genome from the Internet to inspect it.

Seeing Parallels

Perlan is trying to develop a treatment for the common cold, a small percentage of which is caused by a less virulent form of the coronavirus.

That is the germ scientists believe causes SARS. The known corona viruses have caused little more than colds in humans.

Charles said the genome of this new coronavirus could offer useful clues for Perlan’s still early efforts in finding a flu remedy.

“Even though the market is not big for SARS, one may be able to adapt what we learn from the coronavirus to the cold,” Charles said.

A spokeswoman for Vical Inc., another local firm that developed an anthrax vaccine, said the firm plans to work on SARS, but not until government funding becomes available.

Janeen Hicks, who works with a public relations firm representing Vical, said “at this point they aren’t working on projects applicable to SARS, but if funding becomes available they will move forward.”

Several big drug makers, including GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson, and Wyeth have confirmed they are working on diagnostic tests to detect SARS.

Meanwhile, the CDC uses its own tests to look for antibodies against the virus and is working with the FDA to make the tests available to others, according to published reports.

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