Message 16844259
The OCF has a long list of companies and organizations
under their matching gift program.
About two percent of adults have Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. Insufficient levels of serotonin are associated with OCD. I have a brother with OCD--he is a wonderful young fellow robbed of most of his potential. He has to struggle to be part of society in any meaningful way. I hope that in the years ahead biotech will bring us increasingly finely tuned therapeutic molecules. See the OCF website for much more.
ocfoundation.org
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A short rationale for owning shares in Tgen follows below
with a few links and comments for the other companies as well.
The company with which I am most familiar is TGEN.
This is what they say about themselves:
targen.com
Tgen has a handful of connections to quality first tier biotech companies. In biotech, it can be difficult to separate hype from substance sometimes. I've been to two annual Tgen meetings, kept up with all the PR and such, and
the people at Tgen seem very sincere. I had the pleasure of once meeting their Science Officer, Barrie Carter--that was a real treat, and the CEO, Parker, is real genuine and likeable, and I suspect very competent too--as she came
over from IMNX. Parker gets a fair amount of publicity up here in Seattle, and I only heard her really slip up once: When the stock was quite a bit higher and trending down she once said it was undervalued. Several times she has said
"we will have products". Everybody with any sense of how these small biotechs work should know that you really can't promise a thing--what they do is difficult beyond beleif, and Tgen hasn't exactly gone after easy target
(Cystic Fibrosis--good grief!)
I will also say that management at Tgen hasn't exactly managed their stock valuation too well, extremely volatile shares. Part of this was the International Biotechnology Trust, which liquidated. The rest is that they did not raise money in the super bull market--so they have a shelf out right now. I suspect they'll sell some shares in the Spring after one of the two main oncology meetings.
Anyway, I did well enough in the shares in '99-00, and was happpy to buy back my shares (and then some) with a cost of around $4 this past year.
Tgen also has "CellExSys", and that also looks interesting. I always thought cell therapy, espcially this T-Cell expansion sounded like <really big stuff>. A person
probably should sniff around at articles that describle the complexity of the immune system however, an investment in Tgen is rather specuative. Here is the most recent interview with H. Stewart Parker (PDF file):
targen.com
The cancer program sounds like it has some promise, here are some urls:
targen.com
cancerbio.mdacc.tmc.edu
asco.org
My other stocks are
Synpatic
synapticcorp.com
Genset
genxy.com
genxy.com
Unlike molecules that primarily work through activation of the
central nervous system, Famoxin appears to exert its effects at the peripheral level, stimulating muscle oxidation of free fatty acids (FFAs) and thereby clearing free fatty acids from the bloodstream. This increase in oxidation of FFAs may account for the loss in weight.
In 2001 I judged the shares to be a good value at $14 and that was apparently not correct. I think it could do $10 in a year or two, but if Famoxin fails there isn't much for Genset to fall back on. Their main science guy, Bihain, left for Valigen this past year.
instruction.bus.wisc.edu
Valentis
geneswitch.com
valentis.com
If I kept up with emails from Ariad, I might include that one,
but I have defected to VLTS, but it is not for any reason better
than a feeling I get and a gamble for regulated EPO.
"Your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong."
-Darth Vader
Cadus
Subject 19197
Cadus is a value play, I own shares for less than the cash they
represent. It only is about 2% of my net worth, and I prefer to
own companies that are doing some good work. Tgen, Snap and Genset
shares each contain several percent of my net worth!
Don't try this at home <g>.
CeNeS
cenes.com
The company said
"Following the implementation of the restructuring we plan to have
sufficient funding to take M6G through phase III trials in 2002/2003
and to have funds until the end of 2003."
noonanrusso.com
As with Genset, my original investment from a couple years ago in
Cambridge Neuroscience is pretty much worthless now. Naturally
I hope to see something come back to me in the year ahead, but
not willing to bet on it, so just the 5% weighting. |
