Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Read the following and you all should feel shame for how you treated the sales team....the way you all pointed fingers and placed blame for Krystexxa not reaching it's inflated expectations.
You are not leaders....you have no values.....you are all selfish and incompetant. Everyone that launched Krystexxa worked hard and you should apologize and thank us all.
At least you finally realized that the VA will never put Krystexxa on formulary ...LOL
CEO Louis Ferrari, who joined Savient in 2011 and took the CEO job in 2012, blames his predecessors for exaggerated hopes about the market potential for Krystexxa. When management announced the failure of its effort to sell the company in 2010, it spoke of a market of 170 thousand refractory chronic gout patients; a subsequent market study in 2011 suggested the population was only 120 thousand. That didn't stop former CEO James Johnson from telling an audience at the JP Morgan Chase Healthcare Conference in 2012 about "patients in the neighborhood of 500 thousand to 700 thousand" with severe (though not yet refractory) gout, whom he suggested were prospective candidates for treatment with Krystexxa.
Optimism proved pernicious for Savient. As a result, says Ferrari, "The drug was priced at a level thinking the market was much bigger and actually the market is not. The research showed the market to be 120 thousand patients for refractory chronic gout, but I believe the market is much less than even that." Because treatment with Krystexxa requires a series of infusions, patients tend to give more conventional oral therapies every chance before resorting to Krystexxa. Then, when they do turn to Krystexxa, they don't take it for long. Those who respond get the benefit of the drug, and stop taking it more quickly than expected. The clinical trials used a six-month administration period for Krystexxa, with patients using about one vial every two weeks. "We are seeing in practice the total number of months a patient remains on the drug is for less than six months," Ferrari says. A further complication - some patients react to the infusion with anaphylaxis, others develop antibody responses that render the drug ineffective.
After taking the helm as CEO, Ferrari cut the company's sales force by about 35%, but price increases are the focus of the company's strategy. He has raised the price about two-thirds, to $3,850 per vial, has encountered no resistance from payers, and says there is ample room to increase the price further, explaining, "If you look at the orphan drug market, whether an infusible, injectable or oral product, they are all much, much higher priced than we are." He refused to specify a target price.
There have been some positive recent developments for Savient. In January, Krystexxa received approval from European regulators - and in February, Savient announced a deal with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (aka Sobi) to co-promote the orphan rheumatoid arthritis drug, kineret, in the U.S. Ferrari says that he is considering "a number of companies" as potential partners to market Krystexxa in Europe.
A William Blair & Company LLC analysis estimated a $530 million NPV for Krystexxa, based on the price going to $5,180 per vial (Ferrari did not confirm this estimate). EvaluatePharma, which aggregates analyst estimates, gives a Krystexxa NPV of about $279 million. But either number is still comfortably above Savient's current enterprise value of $167 million. Sooner or later, an acquirer should notice the money on the table.
You are not leaders....you have no values.....you are all selfish and incompetant. Everyone that launched Krystexxa worked hard and you should apologize and thank us all.
At least you finally realized that the VA will never put Krystexxa on formulary ...LOL
CEO Louis Ferrari, who joined Savient in 2011 and took the CEO job in 2012, blames his predecessors for exaggerated hopes about the market potential for Krystexxa. When management announced the failure of its effort to sell the company in 2010, it spoke of a market of 170 thousand refractory chronic gout patients; a subsequent market study in 2011 suggested the population was only 120 thousand. That didn't stop former CEO James Johnson from telling an audience at the JP Morgan Chase Healthcare Conference in 2012 about "patients in the neighborhood of 500 thousand to 700 thousand" with severe (though not yet refractory) gout, whom he suggested were prospective candidates for treatment with Krystexxa.
Optimism proved pernicious for Savient. As a result, says Ferrari, "The drug was priced at a level thinking the market was much bigger and actually the market is not. The research showed the market to be 120 thousand patients for refractory chronic gout, but I believe the market is much less than even that." Because treatment with Krystexxa requires a series of infusions, patients tend to give more conventional oral therapies every chance before resorting to Krystexxa. Then, when they do turn to Krystexxa, they don't take it for long. Those who respond get the benefit of the drug, and stop taking it more quickly than expected. The clinical trials used a six-month administration period for Krystexxa, with patients using about one vial every two weeks. "We are seeing in practice the total number of months a patient remains on the drug is for less than six months," Ferrari says. A further complication - some patients react to the infusion with anaphylaxis, others develop antibody responses that render the drug ineffective.
After taking the helm as CEO, Ferrari cut the company's sales force by about 35%, but price increases are the focus of the company's strategy. He has raised the price about two-thirds, to $3,850 per vial, has encountered no resistance from payers, and says there is ample room to increase the price further, explaining, "If you look at the orphan drug market, whether an infusible, injectable or oral product, they are all much, much higher priced than we are." He refused to specify a target price.
There have been some positive recent developments for Savient. In January, Krystexxa received approval from European regulators - and in February, Savient announced a deal with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (aka Sobi) to co-promote the orphan rheumatoid arthritis drug, kineret, in the U.S. Ferrari says that he is considering "a number of companies" as potential partners to market Krystexxa in Europe.
A William Blair & Company LLC analysis estimated a $530 million NPV for Krystexxa, based on the price going to $5,180 per vial (Ferrari did not confirm this estimate). EvaluatePharma, which aggregates analyst estimates, gives a Krystexxa NPV of about $279 million. But either number is still comfortably above Savient's current enterprise value of $167 million. Sooner or later, an acquirer should notice the money on the table.