Can you briefly describe your experience treating patients with cystic fibrosis?

Raptor Pharmaceutical's estimates the patient population in the US with cystic fibrosis is 30,000 people.  Is this an accurate estimate and how would you describe the patient population?

What are the current standards of treatment for cystic fibrosis?  How successful would you say the current treatments are in easing symptoms and reducing complications?

The most common form of treatment for cystic fibrosis is antibiotics that can be administered orally, inhaled, or intravenously.  What are the differences between forms in terms of effectiveness when treating patients?  Is there a preferred or more successful method?

Levofloxacin is an inhaled antibiotic for or the management of chronic pulmonary infections in patients with cystic fibrosis.  Approximately what percent of the patient population is administered an inhaled antibiotic?  What benefits are there to using an inhaled antibiotic?

Levofloxacin focuses on chronic pulmonary infections caused by P. aeruginosa bacteria.  Is this the most common target when treating symptoms associated with cystic fibrosis?

David Happel, chief commercial officer of Raptor, says many adults with cystic fibrosis find the bacteria develop resistance to treatments after being on treatments for many years.  Levofloxacin is said to be very effective treating bacterial infections with multidrug resistance.  Due to this, do you see many primary physicians switching patients to levofloxacin?  

What percent of patients do you see being prescribed levofloxacin, if approved?

Many patients are placed on regular treatments of a drug for extended periods of time to treat the symptoms associated with cystic fibrosis.  If no resistance is notable, what are the chances you see of a patient switching to a new treatment after years on a previous one?  What barriers of entry does a new inhaled antibiotic for treatment of cystic fibrosis patients face?  

Do you see levofloxacin penetrating into adult populations with cystic fibrosis?

Previous estimates place global sales of Levofloxacin (sold as Quinsair in Canada and Europe) at $100 million.  How accurate would you rank this estimate?  What would you estimate the success of levofloxacin?