UPDATE 1-Reuters Summit-GPC eyes capital hike, new trials
Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:10 PM ET
(For other news from the Reuters Biotechnology Summit, click on today.reuters.com/summit/...ame=BiotechnologySummit06&pid=500) (Adds details throughout, share prices)
By Rajiv Sekhri and Steven Silber
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GPCG.DE (GPC Biotech)
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LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Germany's GPC Biotech (GPCG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) might issue new shares to help build a marketing force in the United States if its late-stage drug satraplatin for prostate cancer wins regulatory approval.
Satraplatin would be GPC's first drug on the market and is among the few late-stage products at German biotech firms, which trail their rivals in the United States, UK and Switzerland.
" In all likelihood, what you do after positive Phase III data is you have a capital increase," Chief Executive Bernd Seizinger said on Tuesday at the Reuters Biotechnology Summit.
He declined to discuss details but said the company was also considering additional alliances and securing partners for satraplatin in the United States, Japan and Asia.
The Munich-based company would also consider acquisitions if the cancer drug proves successful.
" On the other hand, we would prefer licensing opportunities because it makes it easier not to have to integrate an infrastructure, but only a compound," Seizinger said.
He said GPC planned five to six additional clinical trials in cancer this year.
The company hopes to get satraplatin, its main drug in development, on the market for prostate cancer in 2007.
It hopes to publish a full study from the Phase III clinical trial in the third quarter of this year to be followed by approval from U.S. and European health authorities.
In December, GPC signed a deal with Pharmion Corp. (PHRM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) in which the U.S. drugmaker will sell satraplatin in Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, with GPC holding the rights for the lucrative U.S. market and elsewhere.
GPC says sales of satraplatin -- an oral treatment for prostate cancer that does not respond to hormone treatment -- could hit $500 million.
GPC Biotech is also testing the product against breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.
At the summit, held in London, Seizinger said GPC would need between 50 and 100 salespeople to market satraplatin to the target group of 5,000 to 8,000 oncologists in the United States.
" It doesn't mean we're going to do everything ourselves in the U.S.," he said. " However, it would be under conditions where we retain the lead to the efforts and also we retain the larger part of the cake."
Some analysts have criticised GPC for focusing on one drug, but Seizinger noted that more than half the company's 230 employees were scientists seeking new compounds.
SG analysts have written that GPC management is " gambling the company's future on such a risky project" , but the stock still hit a fresh year high on Tuesday.
It closed 1.8 percent higher at 13.19 euros in Frankfurt. On the Nasdaq, it was up 5.1 percent at $15.60 by 1740 GMT.