Ted, Speaking of interesting news, here's the AP version of the NEJM article on PCB (weak estrogen) exposure and increased risk (or lack thereof) for breast cancer. It's of interest to LGND because of its huge estrogen/androgen emphasis. LGND has an osteoporosis program with PFE (an two compounds, Droloxifene and CP-366,156, are already in the clinic - Droloxifene is finishing up Phase III for breast cancer and Phase II for osteoporsis) a women's health program with AHP, including SERMs for osteoporosis and breast cancer, a SERM program with LLY, and an in house androgen program.
Vilar's presence at Oppennheimer may be of significance. He headed AHP's Premarin program before coming to LGND, and I suspect that his pet project is the estrogens. The estrogens have been implicated in many areas, including cardiovascular, Alzheimer, memory, osteoporosis, and balding. Many major pharmas (including LGND's current partners and potential future partners) are actively seeking analogues that have the benefits of estrogen, without the side effects (tissue growth or feminizing characteritics).
With LGND's many partners, its easy to see why they think that they have the best pipeline. Its also easy to see how current programs could expand with existing or future partners.
Here's the AP article:
By Daniel Q. Haney
The Associated Press
B O S T O N, Oct. 29 - A new study
offers the strongest evidence yet that
lingering traces of the banned
chemicals DDT and PCBs do not
trigger breast cancer, as some have
feared.
DDT and PCBs are often cited by those
who argue that toxins in the environment are
responsible for the steady increase in breast
cancer over the past half-century.
Both DDT, a bug killer, and PCBs, which
were widely used in industrial products as an
insulator, have been banned in the United
States since the 1970s.
However, these chemicals persist in the
environment and build up in people's bodies.
Since they may mimic the harmful effects of
the female hormone estrogen, some experts
wonder if they could increase the risk of
breast cancer.
At least three small studies have
supported this link, including one published
four years ago in the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute. That study,
based on 58 cancer cases, found that
women with elevated levels of DDT in their
bodies had four times the usual risk of breast
cancer.
Since then, however, one small study and
two larger ones have found no link between
breast cancer and DDT or PCBs. The latest
of these was published in Thursday's issue of
The New England Journal of Medicine.
"The overwhelming weight of the evidence
now is that exposure to these particular
chemicals is not associated with risk of
breast cancer," said Dr. David J. Hunter,
who directed the analysis.
Compared Blood Samples
The research, part of the long-running
Nurses' Health Study, looked at blood
samples donated in 1989 and 1990 by 240
women who were later diagnosed with
breast cancer.
The blood was checked for DDE, the
form DDT takes in the body, and PCBs. For
comparison, the researchers also checked
the blood of women who were similar but
didn't have cancer.
The study found virtually no difference in
levels of either DDE or PCBs between the
two groups. Also, there was no sign that
women with high buildups of the chemicals in
their bodies faced a higher risk of breast
cancer than did those with low
accumulations.
Dr. Mary S. Wolff of Mount Sinai
Medical Center in New York was a
coauthor of this research and also lead
author of the study four years ago that came
to the opposite conclusion. She said she is
not ready to dismiss concerns about DDT
and PCBs.
If the two chemicals are involved in breast
cancer, Wolff said, "the effect is not universal
and it's not as large as we first suspected.
However, I don't think the picture is yet
complete."
Lots of Studying Going On
She said at least 30 other studies are going
on, and the role of PCBs and DDT will not
be clear until more of them are finished.
However, in an editorial in the Journal,
Dr. Stephen H. Safe of Texas A&M
University said he believes the evidence is
already clear, and it should reassure the
public that these chemicals don't cause
breast cancer.
He noted that breast cancer has increased
over the past 20 years at the same time the
banned chemicals have become less
common.
Interest in the possible role of
environmental contaminants has grown, at
least in part, because of scientists' inability to
explain why breast cancer seems to be
getting more common.
The incidence of the disease has risen by
about 1 percent a year since the 1940s.
Much of this is probably a matter of better
detection of breast cancer, due to
mammograms and increased awareness,
rather than a true increase.
Still, many experts believe the disease
actually has grown somewhat more prevalent
over the past half-century, even though the
death rate from the disease has remained
essentially unchanged. |
