Are Antisense Drugs Living up to Their Hype?
The rational behind antisense drugs makes sense (pun intended). A nucleotide sequence is developed that interacts with strands of DNA and modifies gene expression.
Antisense drugs stop making sense?:
However, it is interesting to see if antisense has lived up to all its hype. While there has been one approval; Vitravene (fomivirsen) from Isis Pharmaceuticals for treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis, there hasn’t been much else. 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.
Also, Methylgene stopped development of its antisense compound MG98. The article goes on to mention some other antisense drugs under development. One of these is AVI Biopharma, the only biotech/pharma company here in Oregon.
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 (AMD).
My bottom line; so far antisense has not lived up to its hype. However, I think the problem lies more with the over-hyping and the media than with any inherent problem with antisense itself. I think scientists need to lead the way in being cautious when talking to journalists and more realistic in how long it takes to develop useful products from new technologies. I also feel that stem cell research falls into this category. While I think there is a great opportunity and fully support stem cell research, I think it has been way over-hyped and that it will take quite some time before any useful products result from this research. We in the science community have not done a good job of explaining what all goes into developing new products and in many cases have been overly optimistic of how long a project may take.
Technorati Tags: antisense, Genasense, Genta, Methylgene, MG98, fomivirsen, Vitravene
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