Gilead Stays on Track

BOSTON -- Here are some additional updates from last week's Thomas Weisel Partners Healthcare conference. Today: Gilead Sciences(GILD Quote), Affymax(AFFY Quote) and Celgene(CELG Quote).

Plus, I have another look at Isis Pharmaceuticals(ISIS Quote) and its closely watched cholesterol-lowering drug candidate.

The June launch of Gilead's pulmonary arterial hypertension drug, Letairis, is going well, according to Kevin Young, the company's executive vice president for commercial operations.

About 2,000 pulmonary specialists have registered for Gilead's Letairis risk-management plan, which represents about 60% of the doctors who treat patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, said Young. While not all of these doctors have prescribed Letairis so far, Young said that reports from the field suggest that Letairis is gaining market share in newly diagnosed patients as well as those patients who can't tolerate Actelion's Tracleer, a competing drug.

When Gilead reports third-quarter earnings in October, there will be a lot of investor focus on Letairis. The number of patients on the drug, if Gilead chooses to disclose, will likely be inflated to some extent, because the company is giving away free Letairis samples to smooth out the reimbursement process.

Letairis launched with a very strong label that positioned the drug to be best in class. This plays into the strength of Gilead's marketing team, which has proven in the past (in the HIV drug market, specifically) that it excels at knocking off established competitors.