Vidaza

DUBLIN -- Pharmaceutical company SuperGen announced Monday that it has withdrawn its planned offering of 9.5 million shares of common stock.

The Dublin-based company said it would provide details of its decision during its fourth-quarter earnings report planned for later this week. SuperGen notified the Securities and Exchange Commission of its intent.

SuperGen had originally planned to use the proceeds from the new shares to help commercialize two new drugs if they are approved by regulators.

In January, SuperGen submitted a new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration for its pancreatic cancer drug Orathecin, which was given fast-track designation to speed the approval process.

Analysts believe Orathecin could have a sales potential of $100 million to $150 million annually.

By the end of this year, SuperGen plans to file a second application for Dacogen, a drug used to treat a pre-leukemic condition called MDS.

Dacogen completed its Phase III study late last year and is expected to have the data released sometime in the second or third quarter of this year.

Dacogen could have a market potential of between $300 million and $500 million a year, analysts said.

SuperGen is in direct competition with Colorado-based pharmaceutical company Pharmion, which on Monday was granted priority review status by the FDA for its own drug, Vidaza, also used to treat MDS. The difference between the drugs is that Dacogen is given intravenously and Vidaza is injected under the skin.

Both Dacogen and Vidaza were given orphan drug status, which means that if approved, they would receive exclusive marketing rights in the United States for seven years.

SuperGen is led by James Manuso, who took over the company's chief executive officer position at the beginning of the year.

He replaced Joseph Rubinfeld, who retired from his position as CEO and chairman of SuperGen.

On Monday, shares of SuperGen fell 4 cents to close at $7.80. The 52-week range is from $2.10 to $12.75.

David Morrill can be reached at (925) 416-4805 and dmorrill@angnewspapers.com .

c2004 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior written permission.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.