Plasminogen and (diabetic) chronic wound
The more I read Shen’ thesis on plasminogen therapeutic potential for treating chronic wound, the more I see this as by far the most important news of the year . Of course we’re assuming here this is the new indication they will soon announced this next semester…but can it really be something else ? Probably not.
From official number, there is around 13 millions of people worldwide suffering from diabetic foot ulcers (cost up to 200 000 $ per patient when trans-tibial amputation is required). The annual cost of chronic wounds (diabetic and other) in the US are estimated to be 25 Billions $ !
While PBI-4050 could lead us to an even bigger market with CKD/DKD, this is still very far from commercialization…unless of course PLI reveals unreal results after the double-blind study...gets BDT and so on. But those results will come next year anyway.
Things could be very different with plasminogen and diabetic chronic wound, of course assuming it works in humans like it is in the db/db mice model. I mean we’re talking about a biologic product, not a drug, that can dramatically surpass actual antibiotic therapies and other barely effective products in the treatment of diabetic ulcers.
If PLI management doesn’t fill the « breakthrough therapy designation « form for this indication, the FDA will do it for us : )
The only real competition we can see as of today for serious wound healing comes from tissue engineering (like stem cells). But this is still in development and looks like a long run for now.
The reason why I see this as a future gigantic news is because this will bring something we still haven’t had to my knowledge : unprecedented visibility at the international level. Imagine the news : a small but fast growing (with a unique pipeline) canadian pharma is about to commercialize a protein that could also help healing millions of persons with diabetic foot ulcers.
I do like PLI strategy to focus on orphan conditions, but a « popular » indication like the diabetic chronic wounds (with an indeniable proof of efficiency maybe by the end of 2016) would certainly gets us the visibility we deserve.
Even though PLI revenues are still almost non-existant, our actual market cap (and poor daily volume) is kind of a joke, considering the recent announcements and what’s coming in the next 12 months. This could change drastically with a well-explained NR on this new indication for plasminogen.
M80