A new study released by Vancouver’s QLT Inc. (TSX:QLT) may boost sluggish sales of its flagship drug, Visudyne, after demonstrating it can reduce the number of treatments patients require when taken in combination with a second drug.
Novartis Pharma AG markets Visudyne as a way to combat age-related macular degeneration or wet AMD, an ailment which is the leading cause of blindness in people more than 50 years old.
However, Visudyne sales plunged when F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. began marketing the more-effective competing drug Lucentis.
“Clearly, this drug, Lucentis, works better than Visudyne by itself,” admitted QLT CEO Bob Butchofsky to Business in Vancouver June 22. “That’s why our sales have declined over the past four years or so – since Lucentis became available.”
QLT’s study shows that when patients use Visudyne in combination with Lucentis, they are able to receive fewer treatments.
Butchofsky said: “Visudyne in combination with Lucentis clearly works better than Visudyne alone.”
But, he added, it does not necessarily work better than Lucentis alone.
Butchofsky said the reason people could be enticed into taking Visudyne is because it could mean fewer “intravitreal” Lucentis treatments.
Intravitreal treatments involve the patient receiving injections in the back of the eye. Allegedly the treatment is not as unpleasant as it sounds. Still, the incentive to avoid these treatments is strong, Butchofsky said.
QLT Inc. shares rose $0.12 or 2.03% to $6.02 Tuesday. The company’s range in the past week: between $5.25 and $6.25; 52-week high: $6.67; 52-week low: $2.01.