Vivus again...but not what you think

So everyone knows about Vivus and Qnexa. And everyone knows that Vivus's stock is up over 60% since the beginning of the year. However, seemingly lost in the shuffle is that Vivus has other things going for them besides the potential gamechanging weightloss drug. For example, the company announced promising pivotal phase 3 results of its new drug for erectile dysfunction: Avanafil. What prevents this from being another "me too" situation is that while Avanafil is a PDE-5 inhibitor (like Viagra, Cialis, Levitra), Vivus claims that Avanafil is more selective, works more quickly, and may have fewer hypotensive side effects than competitors. If that is the case, remains to be seen, but Vivus looks like it continues to improve its position as a good looking company for investors.

See the Vivus press release here (check out the study title: REVIVE...inside humor for Vivus?)

For more on Avanafil, read more from Vivus's website

As a side note, what we really need here though, is a comparator study to settle the score once and for all...who knows if that will ever happen.


Also on deck: NicOx is raising a whole bunch of money to fund a marketing push after the FDA accepted the company's NDA for Naproxinod. This drug has been NicOx's golden child for some time, and when on the market, will be a direct competitor to Celebrex. It's the first time in a while that there has been a successful new anti-inflammator on the market because of the potential for undesirable side effects (e.g. bleeding, blood pressure concerns). Naproxinod (actually in its own new class of anti-inflammatory is in its own class of nitric oxide donating cyclooxygenase inhibitors. NicOx's data seems to show that Naproxinod controls pain associated with osteoarthritis without many of those adverse events, so it will be interesting to see how the market shakes out with the addition of this new drug in a few months...Keep an eye on NicOx to see if it's worth making a move...new OA meds always have potential to do big things.

FDA accepts NicOx's NDA

Naproxinod, from NicOx