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FRESH PROMISE IN THE AIDS FIGHT
Investment pro Jack Rivkin, senior vice-president of Travelers Group, parent of Travelers Insurance and Smith Barney, is used to making bets on health-care stocks. His most recent venture has led him to a little-known company: Paracelsian (PRLN). a biotech outfit engaged in developing drugs from herbal sources and designing tests for improving cancer diagnosis.
" It's the first time we've put money in such a development-stage company. But Paracelsian is employing very good science," says Rivkin, who invested $1.5 million for a 5% stake, at 2 3/4 a share. He has invluenced two other groups to invest $500,000.
The company is testing a "novel kinase inhibitor" called PN355 that, in the lab,was effective in helping stop HIV from replicating. The company presented its results at the International Conference on AIDS in Vancover. Dr. David Cohen of the National Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Tumor Biology and the National Institutes of Health,
who worked on the research, said PN355 "has an excellent toxicity profile" and may limit drastically the ability of the virus to spread in the body.
Since then, Paracelsian stock has rallied, going up to 3 3/4. It had skidded to $1 on Jan. 25, 1996, after climbing to 7 1/2 last September. Paracelsian went public in 1992 at 5 1/2.
Also high on Paracelsian is Leo Rishty, editor of the newsletter Unique Situations,who notes the company is also testing an anticancer drug that blocks secretion of prostate antigen. |
