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Poniard Pharmaceuticals – Platinum Rediscovered (Part II)

This article will discuss the development of Poniard’s lead drug, picoplatin, for the treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). A General introduction for picoplatin can be found in the first part of this article.

As a novel platinum compound, picoplatin seems to be the ultimate “platform” product, with potential application in multiple indications, including some of the most lucrative oncology markets. Nevertheless, the only chance Poniard has to generate sales from this product in the next 4-5 years lies in a relatively modest indication - Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC).

SCLC accounts for 13%-15% of all lung cancer diagnosed in the US (32,000 cases in 2007). When diagnosed early, the disease is curable with surgery in some patients, however, in most cases, patients either develop recurrent disease or are diagnosed at an advanced stage. The common treatment for SCLC is a platinum-containing chemotherapy regimen, which typically leads to a very high response rate, however, the vast majority of patients eventually relapse, thus creating a second line market of around 70 thousand patients in developed nations. Although this market represents a rather small market for picoplatin, it can certainly be viewed as the most underserved one.

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