Myrl Jeffcoat myrlj@jps.net

Thanks to Sandra for sending the following article...Myrl

Second death may doom multiple sclerosis drug

By Brett Arends

Thursday, March 31, 2005 - Updated: 02:35 AM EST

Cambridge life-sciences company Biogen Idec Inc. last night was plunged deeper into crisis by news that yet another patient taking its troubled Tysabri drug had died of the rare condition PML.

That's the third patient discovered to have developed PML, a neurological disorder, while taking
Tysabri and the second to die from the disease. ``This is a worst-case scenario,'' Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Geoffrey Porges said last night. ``There is now a 1-in-10 chance that this drug ever comes back.''

Until recently, investors hoped Tysabri, a multiple sclerosis treatment, would generate billions a year in sales. PML is so rare that news of just two cases was enough to cause Biogen and its Irish partner Elan Corp. To pull Tysabri from the market last month.

The two companies announced the latest news after the stock market closed, but Biogen stock crashed another $3.60 to $34.75 in after-hours trading. Elan slid 46 percent to $3.75 in the United States after hours.

The companies suspended sales of Tysabri last month after one patient died from progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) during a clinical trial of Tysabri in combination with Avonex, Biogen's older multiple sclerosis drug. The disease was later confirmed in a second patient:

The companies said the latest diagnosis was in a patient participating in a trial of Tysabri as a treatment for Crohn's disease who died in December 2003.

``This is bad. And it's bad because this was a patient who was not evidently on Avonex,'' said
Alexander Hittle of A.G. Edwards. ``This is going to make it very tough for them to get Tysabri back onto the market.''

Bloomberg News and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=75844