Back in the limelight

Désiré Collen, one of the developers of Activase alteplase tissue-plasminogen activator, has been working on next-generation products since the time t-PA went on the market in 1987. For the most part, the work has been financed with royalties from t-PA. But with products moving through the clinic, his company, ThromboGenics N.V., has announced plans to go public on Euronext in Belgium.

Collen, whose laboratory was the first to produce t-PA for clinical use, thinks the company's staphylokinase could have efficacy similar to t-PA at a lower cost of goods. The plasminogen activator is in Phase II trials. ThromboGenics' second product, microplasmin, is a direct-acting thrombolytic in Phase II studies...