The Door

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Opaque as the Agency's process may appear to non-life sciences investors like me, and obviously highly generalized as my analogy below is, it's an understatement to say Provectus' past, present and future has been, is and will be more about the process (with current emphasis on the step of finally generating randomized clinical trial data). This is especially so for a molecule like PV-10 and Provectus' approach to treating cancer, the former being very novel and the latter being historically unsuccessful (i.e., treating the disease locally in order to defeat it locally and then [in so doing] systemically).

A door is built when a company achieves a consensus design for a pivotal Phase 3 trial with the FDA. The door is closed of course, but with its design and construction complete the drug company can commence a registration study in pursuit of the key the regulator holds to open it. A successful study that also leads to drug approval yields the key from the Agency to unlock the door, opening into the room of a market opportunity for the company to commercialize its therapeutic. Drugs fall down before they reach their doors' respective thresholds by failing their pivotal studies, and thus they're unable to get the key.

Unremarkably and yet, I suppose, obviously, designing and building the door, traveling the path to secure the key from the FDA, opening of the door, and entering the room are just parts of or steps in the Agency's process. Everyone does not follow the process all of the time. When they do, and if they are successful, the process works. The FDA's process could be observed as almost agnostic to the drug going through it.

1986. After a cursory review of the literature, the first I/O door that appears to have been designed, constructed, unlocked and opened was Interferon alpha (IFN-α) [1].

2010. The second I/O door built and unlocked could be for Provenge (sipuleucel-T) [2].

One could argue for other doors such as Bacillus Calmette-Guérin's (BCG) approval in 1990, Herceptin [trastuzumab] in 1998, Gardasil in 2006, and Xgeva [denosumab] in 2010.

2011. The third door might be for Bristol-Myers' anti-CTLA-4 agent Yervoy (ipilimumab). Pfizer's tremelimumab, a related compound, fell down before the threshold by failing its pivotal Phase 3 trial.

2014. The fourth and fifth doors then would be those for anti-PD-1 agents Keytruda (Merck U.S.' pembrolizumab) and Opdivo (Bristol's nivolumab).

Other similar doors may be designed, constructed and unlocked for companies entering pivotal trials of their anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 agents. One also might consider Perjeta's (pertuzumab) approval in 2012.

2015. A sixth door has been designed and built for but currently remains unlocked to Amgen's talimogene laherparepvec (T-Vec).

April's 22-1 advisory committee vote in favor of the drug should encourage the FDA to give Amgen the key in or by October 27th (the drug's PDUFA date). This outcome, while probable, is not certain. Unlocking T-Vec's door, irrespective of the debate about the size of the room into which the opened door permits entry, could and should be a catalyst (in context) for PV-10. 

Provectus' CTO Dr. Eric Wachter, PhD designed and built PV-10's door last year and this year for melanoma (specifically, unresectable locally advanced cutaneous melanoma) by working with the FDA to achieve a consensus pivotal study design. In so doing he convinced the regulator the drug could be a viable treatment option for patients if the trial successfully meets its endpoints.

For Provectus unlocking T-Vec's door could substantially further discussion about or potentially lead to a license, co-development and/or collaboration deal with and/or an minority equity investment by Big Pharma. The issuance of the joint Pfizer-Provectus combination therapy patent allowed in April, more pivotal melanoma Phase 3 site activations, and/or the presentation/publication of Moffitt Cancer Center's PV-10 mechanism of action study also could contribute to the discussion or potentially lead to a deal or deals.

T-Vec and PV-10's doors are similar and different. While T-Vec's door is similar to those of Yervoy, Keytruda and Opdivo in that they have metastatic melanoma labels, PV-10's door possesses the different feature of treating patients at an earlier stage of the melanoma disease cycle. Its pivotal study embraces the potentially more profound outcome of being the local agent with the opportunity to prove that, delivered locally, PV-10 can forestall, prevent or stop the spread of the systemic disease that is cancer (melanoma).

[1] FDA-Approved Cancer Immunotherapies and CRI’s Impact, April 9, 2015, Alexandra Mulvey
[2] Issues Impacting Stakeholder Adoption of Immuno-Oncology, February 16, 2015, AJMC, Dr. Bruce Feinberg, DO