I can answer this for you. They have a drug that's about to be approved for a rare fatal lung disease, IPF. They just hired a very expensive pulmonology sales force of 80 reps. These reps make between 130-150K base salary and have been paid 85K in sign on, retention, and accelerated RSUs. They are also guaranteed a 1 year severance if laid off by Roche. The reps haven't been trained yet. Intermune also has a hep C drug in development. No oncology pipeline.
IPF is NOT a rare disease and there is a very high unmet medical need. This was a brilliant acquisition.
IPF affects about 128,100 people in the United States, with about 48,000 new cases diagnosed annually. (1) 40,000 people die each year to IPF, the same as to breast cancer.
Scarring, or fibrosis, caused by IPF thickens and stiffens the interstitium, causing an irreversible loss of the tissues’ ability to transport oxygen. (Patients suffocate to death)
IPF is five times more common than cystic fibrosis and Lou Gehrig’s Disease (or ALS), yet the disease remains virtually unknown (to general public and even among some physicians) and IPF receives a fraction of the research funding (IPF: approx. $18 million per year; Cystic Fibrosis and ALS: $85 million and $48 million per year respectively.
There is no known cause, no FDA approved treatments and no cure for IPF. IPF is one of the few remaining diseases in which this is the case.
IPF is one of about 200 disorders called interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). IPF is the most common form of ILD
Although other ILDs may be attributed to exposure to asbestos or certain medications, IPF has no known or proven cause.
IPF occurs more often in men than women. Men tend to be diagnosed at a later stage in the disease.
A recent study found that IPF may be 5 to 10 times more prevalent than previously thought. It is unknown whether this may be due to an increased prevalence of the disease or to a previous lack of definitive guidelines for diagnosing IPF
