Article Excerpt:
TWST: Would you give us a brief historical sketch of the company and a picture of the things you are doing now?Dr. Anido: ISTA Pharmaceuticals has been around since 1992. We started out under the name Advanced Corneal Systems, and when we took the company public in 2000, we decided to change the name to ISTA Pharmaceuticals. ISTA is the Lakota Indian name for eye, and so it's quite appropriate since we are an ophthalmology company. I joined the company in 2002 and was brought in by the Board to transition the company from a one-product, one-technology biotech-type play into a full-fledged specialty pharmaceutical company with a pure focus on ophthalmology.
TWST: What are the products that you have been developing so far?
Dr. Anido: We have a broad range of ophthalmic products that are either
on the market or are in our pipeline. Most notably, on the market today
we have a product called Xibrom, which is for the treatment of pain and
inflammation associated with ophthalmic surgeries. We also have Istalol,
which is a reformulated form of timolol, which is a well-known beta
blocker in ophthalmology and it's indicated for the treatment of
glaucoma. And last but not least is actually the original product of the
company called Vitrase, which is an ovine hyaluronidase injection that
has been studied for a number of different indications including
vitreous hemorrhage and diabetic retinopathy. But specifically today, we
have the approval only for use as a spreading agent, which is the
smallest of all of the markets that that product is useful for. In
addition to those, we have a broad range of products in our pipeline.
The one that is closest to market is a combination drug of tobramycin
and prednisolone acetate, which we have been developing over the last
few years. We should be in a position to file that NDA shortly and we
expect approval for that product sometime in the first half of 2007.
Tobramycin and prednisolone is a combination that will be used for the
treatment of much heavier inflammation than, let's say, is reached by
the nonsteroidals like Xibrom. It will compete in a class that is
currently dominated by a competitive product called TobraDex, which
sells close to $200 million a year. We are very excited about the
prospects for that product. In addition, we have a product called
ecabet sodium, which we are currently studying. It's in Phase II for the
treatment of dry eye. We have other products we just added recently to
our pipeline. One of them is a reformulated version of latanoprost,
which is the generic name for a product called Xalatan by Pfizer. It's
the largest selling of the eye products in the United States. Then we
also have a product called iganidipine, which is a calcium channel
blocker. It is a new chemical entity for the treatment of glaucoma and
is able to provide neuroprotection for the retina. So we have a growing
pipeline that we are very, very excited about.
Tickers included in this excerpt: ISTA
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