Medivation, Inc. (MDVN) recently announced that it intends to reduce its workforce by 20% or 23 people to save costs and focus its resources towards research and development
activities related to dimebon and MDV3100.
Medivation also announced the departure of its senior vice president of clinical development and the vice president of commercial development. The company
said that it is no longer looking for a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as this post will be filled by the current Chief Business Officer (CBO).
Medivation’s workforce reduction announcement comes on the heels of disappointing phase III results reported earlier this month on its lead pipeline candidate, dimebon. Dimebon, which is being developed for Alzheimer’s disease in collaboration with Pfizer, Inc. (PFE), failed to achieve both its primary and secondary endpoints in a phase III study (CONNECTION).
Dimebon was the most advanced pipeline candidate at Medivation, which has no marketed products in its portfolio. The successful development of dimebon would have been a major boost for the company. In addition to the Alzheimer’s indication, Medivation is also studying dimebon for Huntington’s disease.
Going forward, Medivation intends to focus on the further analysis of the CONNECTION data, which will help determine future development plans for the candidate. Dimebon is currently being studied in combination with Pfizer’s Aricept for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s. Positive results from this study could allow the companies to push for approval of the product as a combination therapy.
Dimebon is also in another study which is being conducted in Huntington disease patients.
We currently have a Neutral recommendation on Medivation. The high profile phase III failure was a major setback for the company. Medivation could suffer another blow if Pfizer decides to pull out from the collaboration agreement for dimebon.
We note that Pfizer already has another Alzheimer’s candidate, bapineuzumab, in its portfolio that is being developed with Elan Corp (ELN) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). As such, Pfizer may decide to focus its efforts towards the development of bapineuzumab.
http://www.dimebonalzheimers.com/
Related Websites - Intel buys McAfee for $7.7B in push beyond PCs [/caption] SAN FRANCISCO – Talk about a new meaning for "Intel Inside." Intel Corp. wants to be inside your television. And your cell phone. And your car. And pretty much...
- 3 Things to Know About the Most Valuable Silver Coin The most valuable silver dollar is the 1804 Silver Dollar with the Draped Bust. As a side note, this coin is not only the most valuable in the silver coin...
- Is Clean Coal Really Clean? Not Really... Dear EarthTalk: As I understand it, âcleanâ coal really isnâtâyet the Bush Administration gushed strongly for it. What is Obamaâs take on it? Barack Obama and George W. Bush differ...
- Global Warming-How It Could Spark World War III by mandiberg Global Warming-How It Could Spark World War III These Days global warming is a very hot topic and little wonder, seeing as the earth grows hotter with each...
- Saving, Spending and Investing Philosophy How you think about saving, spending and investing [about money in general] affects where you end up financially. If you think wealth is limited and you'll never make any, you're...
- Google says China partially blocks search service [/caption] BEIJING – A Google search feature was blocked in China on Thursday, the company said as it awaited Beijing's decision on whether to renew its operating license amid tensions...
- Thomas Troward - Philosopher and Sage by Genevieve Behrend var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-11989331-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {} “‘I AM’ is...