Summary
Anemia is a big problem for many Myeloma patients. Recombinant Epo has been used to treat many different anemias, but its use has been severely restricted over the past few years due to reports of clotting complications and inadvertent tumor growth. Through an asset purchase agreement, XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq: XTLB; TASE: XTL) has agreed with Bio-GAL to acquire the "use patent" for Epo in the treatment of anemia in myeloma.
Analysis
Myeloma patients develop anemia from several causes, including from chemotherapy side effects and kidney dysfunction - both currently 'approved' as individual reimbursable diagnoses by most US insurers including Medicare. It is certainly reasonable to expect that in XTL's required Phase II studies that Epo will demonstrate some positive effects towards survival, and if not, then towards improved quality of life and decreased red cell transfusion requirement; there are already a few published reports out there suggesting as much.
Adverse reports with Epo use include higher rates of some cancer relapses, and for these reasons Epo use is reimbursed under very strict clinical guidelines. Use in myeloma has fallen through the cracks and would probably increase if it were prospectively studied to demonstrate efficacy with no ill effects.
There are about 15,000 new cases of myeloma in the US each year, and although typical survival had been only a few years, with the newer treatments survival is likely to be longer.
