Responsibilities of the team, page-36

Some nice research done here guys. A few comments.

1. For pricing what a treatment like Bisantrene would sell for look to what prices are being charged for other new drugs on the market. Most new anti-cancer drugs sell in the range of $25-250K per patient. Even for a relatively rare cancer like AML this quickly adds up to a massive number.

2. Think a little outside the square in regards markets. The cancer with the most Bisantrene data is not AML, but breast cancer. There are around 50,000 cases of AML every year in the world, while there are more than 2 million breast cancer cases. There is a real need for better chemotherapeutic drugs for breast cancer, especially ones that don’t damage the heart.

3. It is very difficult for a small company like RAC to take a drug successfully all the way to market. While cost is an issue (Phase III trials are expensive), the bigger issue is the lack of sales infrastructure. The most difficult area of sales is in the medical field and it is because doctors are almost impossible to get to see [1]. It is much more efficient for a large pharma company with an existing sales force to bolt on a new drug than for a small company to establish an entire sales force. This is the reason that most new drugs are developed by small biotechs and sold by large pharama companies.

1. As an aside if you ever go to a medical conference you can pick the medical sales people a mile off - they are the beautiful and charming people flirting with the (old) doctors. As a scientist it is interesting to see them change as soon as they find out you are not a medical doctor.