Tuesday July 27, 12:01 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
PAR issues investment opinion on Vasogen
PAR Initiates Vasogen (OTCBB:VSOGF) Research Coverage With Buy Recommendation
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 1999-- Public Analysis & Review (PAR) is the unique professional independent analyst program administered by the non-profit Investors Research Institute, Inc. PAR research is distributed by Investrend Research. John M. Dutton, Investrend Research president, announced that Randall D. Lewis, professional securities analyst qualified in the PAR program, published his Initial PAR coverage of Vasogen Inc. (OTCBB: VSOGF - news) on July 27, 1999. Mr. Lewis has issued a BUY recommendation. His 12 month price target is US$2.50. Mr. Lewis will follow Vasogen and issue Quarterly Update Reports. Mr. Dutton noted that Investrend Research will be releasing shortly the previously announced Quarterly Update of Starnet Communications (OTCBB:SNMM - news). An Initial Research Report was recently issued on M&A West (OTCBB:MAWI - news) and an Update Report for AlphaTrade.com (OTCBB:EBNK - news).
A summary of the Vasogen, Inc. report follows. The entire report including disclaimers can be downloaded from the Investrend Website at www.investrend.com.
Please read the disclaimers before investing.
A summary of the Vasogen report follows.
Toronto-based Vasogen Inc. (NASD OTCBB:VSOGF/TSE:VAS) is focused on bringing to market a portfolio of immune modulation therapies to advance the treatment of cardiovascular, autoimmune and related inflammatory diseases.
The company's product mix currently targets four primary medical categories: 1) VasoCare(TM) therapy for the treatment and prevention of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases; 2) VAS971 - for the protection of vital organs and tissues against Ischemia/Reperfusion (I/R) Injury during major vascular surgery; 3) VAS972 - for the treatment and prevention of autoimmune diseases; and 4) VAS981 - for the prevention of Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD), a common complication of bone marrow transplants. The company has a comprehensive intellectual property portfolio, holding five U.S. patents with 11 more pending in major jurisdictions around the world.
Within the last few years, immunology has undergone a radical change in scientific thinking. New discoveries about the human immune system have led to rapidly changing ideas regarding possible treatments for immune-related diseases. Vasogen's immune modulation therapies are on the leading edge of this new knowledge. Vasogen's therapies involve extracting a sample of the patient's own blood, modifying its components, and re-injecting it into the patient. After the blood is taken from the patient, it is exposed to a combination of physiochemical biological modifiers, including elevated temperature, oxidative conditioning and ultraviolet light, using a state-of-the-art, proprietary medical device technology. A course of treatment normally involves three 30-minute outpatient treatments administered over a two-week period. After the initial course of treatment, the therapeutic effectiveness would be maintained through semi-annual booster treatments.
Research to date indicates that the modified blood sample elicits an immune response that restores the immune system to a balanced state. An immune system that is out of normal balance is believed to be the underlying cause of many immune-related diseases including autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis, and those with an autoimmune/inflammatory component such as atherosclerosis and ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Vasogen's products are regulated as medical devices, which means that they are not subject to the lengthy approval process associated with pharmaceuticals. In collaboration with some of the world's leading medical experts and university-based research centers, the company is moving rapidly through pre-clinical studies and clinical trials with favorable results. In fact, a recent pre-clinical study conducted by a cardiology research team at St. Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto, showed that use of Vasogen's cardiovascular disease therapy, VasoCare(TM) therapy, profoundly reduced the formation of atherosclerotic plaque (which leads to heart attacks and strokes) by 75%. If clinically proven, the company's products will be marketed through licensing agreements with large, well-established marketing partners.
Our valuation conclusion is as follows. Utilizing a schedule based on both the probability of product success and market share captured if successful, we have obtained a 12-month target price of US$2.50, using a discountrate of 50% and a conservative earnings multiple, when compared to the 5-year projected earnings growth rate of 49.4%, of 20 times.
Randall D. Lewis, Analyst Mr. Lewis, Los Angeles, is a member of the Los Angeles Society of Financial Analysts. He has more than ten year's experience in security and portfolio analysis, and has served as an equity analyst at SSI Investment Management, Inc., financial analyst for Griffin Financial Services, and research and market analyst for Eneric Financial Services. He has published several articles, most recently on merger arbitrage in the HFR Journal of Hedge Fund Research. He obtained his B.A. degree with honors in finance from California State Univ., is in the MBA program at The Anderson School of Business at UCLA, and is a Level III candidate for the CFA designation.
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