More Arena Pharmaceuticals: Derek Lowe Seriously Upsets (Overreacting?) Shareholders
May 19, 2009 at 3:37 pm EST | Tags: Clinical Trials, Editorials, Iffy Drugs, Investors
Derek Lowe (of In the Pipeline fame) has
seriously ruffled
some feathers on Seeking Alpha.
Derek Lowe commented (more like linked-to) on Obesityinvestor’s article on Arena Pharmaceuticals titled “Arena Needs Cash.” Derek wrote two paragraphs on his SeekingAlpha blog and called it “Arena Pharma Could Be on the Verge of Collapse.” The s*&@ hit the fan. Commenters, who we presume are shareholders, attacked Derek without mercy.
We wouldn’t go so far to say ARNA is on the verge of collapse (they have about 9-12 months of life left), but we also aren’t ready to go to bat for lorcaserin.
Anyway, here’s how some people reacted to Derek’s seemingly innocent post:
From Beacon…
“Absolutely irresponsible journalism to come out with a statement such as that without facts relating to the whole story.”
From PhillyDan…
You should be sued for libel for this dishonest reporting. Lorcaserin did indeed pass the FDA’s threshold for efficacy. To remind your brain once again, there are two criterion that are an “either or” for passing the efficacy threshold. Lorcaserin passed the threshold of having 47.5% of the study population lose greater than 5% of their body weight vs. 20.3% of the placebo group thus meeting the FDA guidelines for efficacy. In addition, and just as important, Lorcaserin more than satisfied the FDA guidelines for safety and tolerability. I noticed you decided to leave that out of your malicious and incorrect reporting.”
From Gloria J…
“Pathetic bash job on Arena.”
From Stock_doc …
“Sounds like a desparate short try to bash a stock so he can cover. All I can say is you’d better cover soon while you still can before the imminent short squeeze when lorcaserin gets FDA approval.”
Too harsh? Too nasty??
We had our take on Arena here and here, and we’ll address the few emails we received regarding them. For now, take a look at Zacks.
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derek said nothing wrong – drug not impressive
Derek said nothing wrong? Stating that lorcaserin did not quite make the minimum threshold for efficacy is flat-out FALSE. And considering that Arena’s future depends upon lorcaserin, I’d call this untruth much worse than ’seemingly innocent’.
What is wrong with you people? This isn’t a matter of opinion or debate. The FDA has 2 separate standards for efficacy precisely for cases like this where a mean does not adequately express the utility of a therapeutic (i.e. when there are clear sub-populations of responders and non-responders). Whether you are impressed or not by the results, stating that lorcaserin did not meet efficacy threshold is just plain NOT TRUE. Get it? IT’S NOT TRUE, AND THAT IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH WHAT DEREK SAID. For goodness sake…is the sky purple in your world too?
Derek said: “They didn’t quite make the minimum threshold for efficacy..” That is a flat-out lie, and he knows it. Derek headlined the article: “Arena Pharma Could Be on the Verge of Collapse” That is a flat-out lie and he knows it. You may think results better than the current standard of care are “not impressive.” Derek may think the same. That does not give him a license to lie.
Derek is certainly entitled to an opinion on how whether or not Arena will survive long term and whether or not Lorcaserin will be approved and do well in the marketplace. But when your opinions are based on incorrect facts, then that is definitely wrong. Saying Derek did nothing wrong is like saying the Earth is flat.
Pissed: How would you know the drug is not impressive? Were you in the study? Have you interviewed several of the people in the study group who were unhappy with the results? In my opinion, 47.8% of people in the study losing greater than 5% of their body weight is impressive as well as over 22% losing more than 10% with a drug that has a very good safety profile and is well tolerated by the study group. Anyway, we can agree to disagree on the impressiveness of Lorcarserin but I will not agree that Derek did not do anything wrong. He is wrong and he should act like a man and admit it.