Winning over hearts | Markets | Stocks | Canadian Business Online

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Winning over hearts | Markets | Stocks | Canadian Business Online: "Winning over hearts
Erin Pooley
From the March 26, 2007 issue of Canadian Business magazine
In the global cardiovascular drug industry, Medicure Inc. is a David among the Goliaths. With just 90 employees and a market capitalization of less than $140 million, the Winnipeg-based drug-discovery company is a small player compared to the pharmaceutical giants that compete in the US$70-billion heart-disease space. But despite its size, Medicure is working on a drug with the capacity to reduce the risk of heart damage due to cardiovascular disease — the No. 1 killer in both Canada and the United States. Recent safety concerns regarding drug-coated stents — an alternative treatment to coronary artery bypass surgery — could also pump some new life into this biotech's sagging share price (TSX: MPH).
Currently in pivotal Phase 3 trials, Medicure's MC-1 drug is a cardio-protectant, designed to reduce the damage to the heart when arteries are blocked and when they are subsequently reopened after bypass surgery. In a previous trial involving 900 bypass patients, the drug reduced the heart attack rate by nearly 50% in the first 30 days. If Phase 3 trials are successful — results are expected in March 2008 — MC-1 could be on the market in the U.S. as early as the beginning of 2009, following shortly after in Canada. (Medicure has already received fast-track approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for MC-1.)
'I call it the second Aspirin,' says Claude Camiré, a biotechnology analyst at Toronto-based Paradigm Capital Inc. 'A lot of people use Aspirin or blood thinners [after surgery], but those only help your blood flow — they don't really protect your heart like M"