LIZ CLAMAN, CNBC ANCHOR: From liver cancer to obesity and diabetes,
Tularik is working on drugs to fight them all. Joining us now is the
company`s CEO, David Goeddel. He will provide a clinical development
update and financial guidance for 2004 at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare
Conference in San Francisco later today. And also, we`re joined by Mike
Huckman, who`s at the conference as well, CNBC reporter.
Good morning, Mr. Goeddel, thank you for joining us.
DAVID GOEDDEL, CEO, TULARIK: Good morning, I`m happy to be here.
CLAMAN: All right. Mike, why don`t you take it away, since you`re right
there with him?
MIKE HUCKMAN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Goeddel, your pipeline is pretty
broad. Some might say that it`s even all over the map. As Liz mentioned,
you`re targeting various types of cancer, obesity - that`s a San Francisco
trolley car passing us, by the way, arthritis. How do you convince
investors, then? And it`s all in early to mid-stage development right now.
So how do you convince investors at a conference like this one, that
someday, down the road, something in your pipeline is going to pay off?
GOEDDEL: Well, I think that the depth of our pipeline is one of the things
that helps convince them. We have multiple opportunities, things do fail
in clinical testing. But we have many very attractive drugs moving through
the clinic, and they`ve moved successfully through last year, through
stringent testing.
HUCKMAN: One of those sounds like it could eventually be a magic pill, if
it works, for obesity, where, believe it or not, it supposedly decreases
your appetite, and raises your metabolism. And this would be a pill. Tell
me about that entering Phase I clinical trials this year.
GOEDDEL: Yes, that drug is called T-71. We completed pre-clinical testing
during 2003, have filed the regulatory papers, and we`ll soon initiate
Phase I testing. It`s a pill, it`s orally active, will be taken once a day.
And in pre-clinical testing, it very effectively reduces appetite, and at
the same time, increases energy expenditure, or the metabolic rate.
CLAMAN: Sir, let`s talk about your drug development pipeline as well. T-
67 for liver cancer is in Phase III trials. Traditionally, drugs for liver
cancer have been very challenging to deliver to the marketplace. What
makes yours different?
GOEDDEL: Well, we`ve seen very specific activity in Phase I and Phase II
against patients - against liver cancer in particular, hepatocellular
carcinoma. So we`ve moved into the pivotal trial, the Phrase III, and
effectively have moved that along. We`ve enrolled a hundred patients or
more during 2003. We`ll get a look at the interim data about mid-year this
year as those hundred patients are followed, and the data monitoring
committee has a look, and analyzes that data.
CLAMAN: Mr. Goeddel, I want to thank you very much. And Mike, they`re
telling me that we don`t have any more time to talk, and I`m sure Mr.
Goeddel has to get in there for his presentation. But our thanks to both
Mike Huckman and David Goeddel, Tularik CEO.
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