Pharma Blog Watch

Antisense Drugs (QDIS Blog)
In his blog, Ed Vawter discusses antisense drugs. "The rational behind antisense drugs makes sense (pun intended). A nucleotide sequence is developed that interacts with strands of DNA and modifies gene expression."

"However, it is interesting to see if antisense has lived up to all its hype," he writes. "Recently Genta has received a non-approvable letter from the FDA for its antisense compound Genasense used in combination with chemotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). This drug was also refused approval back in 2004 for treatment of melanoma, which led to Sanofi-Aventis pulling out of a potential collaboration deal."

"While I do believe there is potential here, I think again it was a case of being over-hyped in the media mainly for the purpose of raising capital. There must be something to this since Merck just spent a huge sum to acquire Sirna who is developing an antisense drug for treatment of age-related macular degeneration."