Biotech Notebook: Progenics, Wyeth

If you read his biographical sketch provided by Introgen, what you see is that Pearson is a public relations guy, or what we in the media call a PR flack. His current PR gig is with the computer maker Dell DELL, but prior to that, he worked various media relations and PR jobs with Novartis NVS and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, now known as Sanofi-Aventis SNY.

I wanted to ask Pearson about his hands-on experience in getting new drugs approved, but he declined to take my phone call.

The other thing not widely disclosed by Introgen (unless you read the SEC filing detailing his appointment to the board) is that Pearson is on the company's payroll. He's not an independent director. Pearson is being paid as a consultant to provide "certain business development services" for a fee that could reach $3 million.

---

I guess I should say something about the study (a retrospective meta-analysis, actually) published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that links human blood substitutes like Northfield Labs' NFLD Polyheme and Biopure's BPUR Hemopure to an increased risk of heart attack and death.

I told you so.

Seriously, what heartens me about this latest knock on blood substitutes is that the market was efficient. The beaten-down share prices of Northfield and Biopure tell you that investors knew these blood subs were dangerous and ineffective a long time ago.

Northfield Labs is still insisting that it will seek FDA approval for Polyheme later this year. With this latest negative publicity, Northfield's chances are nil. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see the FDA send the Polyheme application back with a refuse-to-file letter.