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TWST: How do you think your R&D expenditures will change in the future?

Dr. Hunter: I expect next year our R&D expenses to go up over this year,primarily due to the cost of completing a Phase II MS study and getting ready to start Phase III, as well as starting a Phase II RA study. So you know the cost will go up. But it will be almost entirely due to clinical trial cost, not due to added infrastructure or anything like that.

TWST: How is the competition?

Dr. Hunter: There is nobody really doing what we’re doing with paclitaxel. Obviously there is competition in all of the fields I’ve mentioned. The most visible competition to the paclitaxel coated stent program is Johnson & Johnson is using a drug called Rapamycin® which is an immunomodulating drug as a stent coating to put on their stent platform. It’s really the only other drug coated stent of note that’s well into human studies.

TWST: What are the most significant trends, developments, and changes that you anticipate in your markets over the next several years?

Dr. Hunter: I think starting with the stent, where you will probably see is that almost all manufacturers will have to go to some sort of drug-coating platform. So even the companies that currently are not in clinical trials, companies like Guidant and Medtronic, you’re likely to see that they, too, will get into the drug-coating field for stents. So I think we’re at the head of that curve right now. You’ll probably see that others will be playing catch-up but we’ll also be getting into that area. On the MS and RA side, I think especially multiple sclerosis, with Immunex recently getting approval of Novantrone® which is a chemotherapeutic drug and they got approval for it for secondary progressive, I think you’ll see that the use of anti-cancer drugs for patients with inflammatory disease like RA and MS, will become a mainstream form of therapy. We hope to capitalize on that medical trend as well.

TWST: What are the major concerns or risks facing Angiotech now and also in the future?

Dr. Hunter: I think anyone who runs a technology-driven business recognizes just how dependent you are on the efficacy of your products. The reality in medicine is that it’s a very objective determiner, a very objective judge. If your product works, then obviously you’re rewarded. If you don’t get the efficacy you wanted, you don’t get the economic results either. So I think we all are anxiously awaiting to see the results of that Phase II secondary progressive MS study. We put a lot of money into the program and it’s a large study. It’s a 189 patient study. At the end of that study I think we’ll know whether or not we have a product that will have an impact. You just don’t know what those results are going to be until you see them.

TWST: How is your burn rate?

Dr. Hunter: We (Nasdaq:ANPI) have just over 100 million US cash on hand. Our burn rate right now is only in the 2 million to 3 million a year range, so we are very adequately capitalized. We have enough cash on hand to see both the stents and the MS program through to approval. So there are no immediate plans for financing. I mean of course no one ever says, “never,” but we would be financing for strategic reasons, not for product development reasons. So there are no real plans to go back to the market.