The Next Challenger to the EPO Monopoly

What challenges do you foresee in gaining ground in the renal community if Hematide it approved?

Morris: The main one is that there is a monopoly in the dialysis market. We see that as a great opportunity to bring, not only a best-in-class product profile to the renal community, but also to bring another product and another choice. We don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to break up the EPO challenge, but what we hear from people all the time is that they would like an alternative to Epogen in the dialysis clinics. What we hear from nephrologists for their office patients is that they would like a much more convenient drug than they have on the market. Granted, Aranesp can be used less frequently than Epogen, but it’s still not an ideal kind of profile. The other issue if the reimbursement of these drugs. It’s hard to predict how they are going to be reimbursed. Are we going to continue as an ASP? Is it going to be capitated? Is it going to be some other variant, since Congress seems to be really interested in this area, that we haven’t dreamed up yet? We have to stay very close to the reimbursement environment so we can tailor our reimbursement strategy to what’s going to be required to not only break up the monopoly, but also to make sure our drug is well-positioned for reimbursement in the future.

What does the future hold for Affymax?

Morris: The future for us is as a renal company. We are committed to being a strong renal company with a great product. We are very excited about that opportunity. Everybody in the company is engaged, in some way, with the development or commercialization of Hematide. We’re about 150 employees. It’s a great culture and a culture of bringing a good product to patients in the renal area.