New drug on the scene

[Important: Before reading the following post, please see my ‘disclaimer‘ page.]

A friend who is retired from the pharmaceutical industry recently gave me a lead on a new drug for treating some forms of blood diseases.

Pharmacyclics has had positive data on the treatment of CLL . Their new drug is call Ibrutinib. It is now going through the FDA process and may be approved soon.

According to the company, Ibrutinib basically blocks signals from the B-cell receptor by inhibiting the function of the BTK enzyme and kills the B-cell cancer. To date, seven phase 3 studies have been initiated with ibrutinib. The product is still going through additional studies to evaluate its efficacy against other B-cell cancers, including myeloma and lymphoma.

Apparently Pharmacyclics has signed a deal with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson for the development and commercialization of ibrutinib to treat CLL.

For more info on this go to these links:

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/08/21/this-small-company-is-winning-the-war-against-bloo.aspx

http://www.investor.jnj.com/releaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=739865

http://www.pharmacyclics.com/productpipeline1.html

http://www.cll-nhl.com/2013/12/ibrutinib-in-front-line-elderly.html#.UrN4Z429s5A