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sciencebzzt (94.72)

All time low for Alexza Pharma... I'M HAVING A PANIC ATTACK

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June 10, 2008 – Comments (4) | RELATED TICKERS: ALXA

Heres a link to the dissapointing recent news about Alexza Pharmacueticals clinical trials

And heres the jist of it:

"Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today preliminary results from its Phase 2a proof-of-concept clinical trial with AZ-002 (Staccato® alprazolam) in patients with panic disorder. The study did not meet its two primary endpoints, which were the effect of AZ-002 on the incidence of a doxapram-induced panic attack and the effect of AZ-002 on the duration of a doxapram-induced panic attack, both as compared with placebo."

A little background:

Alprazolam is Xanax for those who don't know.  Xanax is a great drug for people with panic attacks and anxiety, it works nicely and it massively prescribed, the problem is, for people with acute panic attacks, the pill just doesn't act quickly enough.  

So whats quicker than eating a pill?  Inhaling a drug, as anyone who's every smoked heroin will tell you, is the fastest way to feel the effects, even faster than injecting the drug (since the blood passing through the lungs goes directly to the brain, and the blood passing through a vein has to travel around the body once before getting the brain).  So the main idea behind ALXA's  Staccato® system is sound science.   Why the trail was a failure, I'm not entierly certain, but I don't think its a big a setback as it seems. 

ALXA has the patent on the process, which can be applied to far more drugs than just Alprazolam.  The two big ones that I think will be the money ones are fentanyl (a powerful synthetic opiate for pain) and zaleplon (for insomnia), both of which are currently still in Phase 1 trails.  If they both make it to market, I think ALXA will be in the money.  The company is solid, with good product on the horizon, and a patent on a system that may well become hugely popular, thats why I think right now, with ALXA at its all time low, is prime time to buy.

4 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On June 10, 2008 at 2:40 PM, sciencebzzt (94.72) wrote:

EDIT:

Whoops.  bad science on my part.

Apparently blood from the lungs goes to the heart 1st and then is pumped out thru the aorta to everywhere in the body, the brain being one of the first stops shortly thereafter.  It doesn't go directly to the brain like I said.

Drugs injected into veins rely on smooth muscle in and around the walls of the vessels to get them back to the heart, where they then go to the lung, then back to the heart where they finally get pumped to the body/brain via the aorta.  

So I had the jist of it down, just effed up the specifics. 

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#2) On June 10, 2008 at 3:17 PM, sciencebzzt (94.72) wrote:

EDIT:

Whoops.  bad science on my part.

Apparently blood from the lungs goes to the heart 1st and then is pumped out thru the aorta to everywhere in the body, the brain being one of the first stops shortly thereafter.  It doesn't go directly to the brain like I said.

Drugs injected into veins rely on smooth muscle in and around the walls of the vessels to get them back to the heart, where they then go to the lung, then back to the heart where they finally get pumped to the body/brain via the aorta.  

So I had the jist of it down, just effed up the specifics. 

Report this comment
#3) On June 10, 2008 at 3:42 PM, sciencebzzt (94.72) wrote:

EDIT:

Whoops.  bad science on my part.

Apparently blood from the lungs goes to the heart 1st and then is pumped out thru the aorta to everywhere in the body, the brain being one of the first stops shortly thereafter.  It doesn't go directly to the brain like I said.

Drugs injected into veins rely on smooth muscle in and around the walls of the vessels to get them back to the heart, where they then go to the lung, then back to the heart where they finally get pumped to the body/brain via the aorta.  

So I had the jist of it down, just effed up the specifics. 

Report this comment
#4) On June 11, 2008 at 12:04 AM, Tastylunch (99.53) wrote:

aw dang , that's very very dissappointing.

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