MacroChem VP to Address Conference on How MCHM Can Help Big Pharma Enhance Patient Care, Extend Expiring Patents of Major Drugs

24-Jan-2001

Mel Snyder, vice president of market development at MacroChem Corporation (Nasdaq: MCHM), will present his company's SEPA(R) drug-absorption-enhancement technology to more than 400 pharmaceutical and drug-delivery company executives attending the 5th Annual drug delivery Partnerships 2001 meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday, January 24. In his speech and the company's exhibit, Snyder will show conference attendees how they can improve patient care and extend drug-patent protection with MacroChem technology, which enables through-the-skin delivery of drugs that ordinarily aren't well absorbed when applied topically. SEPA(R) = Better care for millions who can't, shouldn't or won't take orals or injectables According to Snyder, MacroChem can help some companies with expiring- patent drugs to capitalize on a largely untapped market for through-the-skin alternatives to the tablets, capsules and injectable drugs that dominate pharmaceutical care today. Such transdermal formulations could rescue the brand names of expiring-patent drugs with sales today exceeding $50 billion, he said. "Today, 2.8 million elderly receive their medical care in nursing homes, and 2.5 million more receive medical assistance at home," Snyder points out. "University studies repeatedly show that 40 to 80% of these aged patients have difficulty swallowing oral medications, as do more than half of the million Americans treated annually with radiation and chemotherapy for cancer, and between 50 and 90% of the million with Parkinson's disease." Such swallowing difficulties drive up hospital, nursing home and home-care costs associated with medication dosage. Snyder suggests industry also consider how it might profit from helping additional millions who often frustrate their caregivers by refusing to swallow oral medications -- the rising percentage of elderly suffering depression, anxiety and dementias, superimposed on physical conditions that demand chronic medication. "The National Institutes of Health Development Panel on Depression in Late Life estimated that 25 percent of nursing home residents suffer a major or minor depression, for which the drugs of choice are agents like Prozac(R), Wellbutrin(R), Paxil(R) and Zolof(R) -- drugs with sales today in excess of $7.3 billion -- all covered by patents that expire between 2001 and 2005," Snyder explains. "Despite that prevalence of nursing home depression, and availability of excellent drugs, studies persistently show half or more nursing home depression is undiagnosed and/or untreated." "MacroChem can help pharmaceutical companies reformulate many psychotropic and chronic-disease drugs into topicals that could revolutionize the care of millions of people, while -- in many cases -- adding up to 20 years of new patent protection and profits that might otherwise be lost." Snyder urges companies with investigational chronic-disease drugs that don't appear sufficiently different from today's oral drugs to consider reformulating them as topicals, to serve this market. Example of MacroChem technology: Potential blockbuster for treating ED Among the examples of improved patient care and new-patent potential resulting from SEPA: Topiglan(R), MacroChem's own potential-blockbuster topical drug for treating erectile dysfunction. Topiglan, now in pivotal Phase 3 trials, uses SEPA to enhance absorption of the off-patent drug alprostadil through the skin of the penis, rather than requiring injection or insertion as a suppository into the urethra. In recognition of that advance, MacroChem obtained a patent on this novel drug-plus-enhancer combination, as well as other patents for three other SEPA combinations with pain medications, hormones and hair regrowth medications. MacroChem can collaborate with drug-delivery competitors In addition to showing drug companies the benefits of SEPA-enhanced topicals, Snyder will also show other drug delivery companies -- espec

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