From Business Week's "Inside Wall Street" column:
PRWW: A Fast Track through the FDA
A company that could somehow expedite the process of approval--or rejection--by the Food & Drug Administration
could be a gigantic winner, says investment manager Jack Silver, president of SIAR Capital. He thinks such a company
exists: PRWW (PRWW), which provides Web-based solutions that streamline the clinical-trial process for
drugmakers.
Shares of PRWW shot to 22 in February, up from 10, after investors got wind of its eResearch Technology unit, which
developed the software to automate trials, including data-collection and filing for approval of new drugs. But the stock
fell back to 5 by Dec. 4, 2000, after PRWW delayed the scheduled initial public offering of eResearch. It has since
inched up to 6 13/16.
Silver expects the stock to triple in a year, because he thinks clinical trials are moving from paper-based to electronic
systems. Soon, the government will mandate such processing to speed things up, he says.
David Jordon of Axiom Capital Management expects the IPO of eResearch to get under way in the first quarter of
2001. He says nine companies have signed up as eResearch clients, including Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Isis
Pharmaceuticals, 3M/Pharmaceuticals, and Breast Cancer International Research Group. Each year, top drugmakers
spend $8 billion on handling data for clinical trials. Less than 1%, says Jordon, is handled electronically.
By GENE G. MARCIAL |
