Over the past weekend, GE Healthcare(GE) and (DYAX)made an annnouncement about their new join effort.... CHALFONT ST GILES, England & BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GE Healthcare, a unit of GE (NYSE: GE - News), and Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ: DYAX - News) today announced a licensing agreement for the development and commercialization of peptides binding to c-Met, which provides upfront, milestone, and royalty payments to Dyax. Research of potential diagnostic applications and use as a patient selection biomarker in oncology will be explored by GE Healthcare in collaboration with academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies. The license includes application of the peptides in positron emission tomography (PET), single proton emission computed tomography (SPECT), and optical imaging.
“Growth factor receptors such as c-Met are promising therapeutic targets that could be a critical factor in the development of colorectal, lung and liver oncology drugs,” said Marivi Mendizabal, Head of Research, GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics. “As in vivo imaging technologies become increasingly important in oncology drug development, our vision is that we will be able to rapidly develop new targeted molecular diagnostics – not just for our own clinical portfolio, but as ‘companion’ diagnostic offerings for our strategic biopharmaceutical partnerships.”
Initial preclinical data on c-Met imaging will be presented by GE Healthcare at the American Academy of Cancer Research meeting March 31 – April 4 in Chicago, IL.
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This again gives support to the effort in developing meaningful application with the c-Met peptide binding application for new drugs. IMO, the big pharma is and will continue to be on the lookout for take out candidates with promising compounds in clinicals. (ARQL) is sitting in the 'cat-bird-seat' with their programs in advanced development and key data being released at the upcoming ASCO conference.
If one tracks the action over the last two days, the charts and the volume are giving indications that accumulations is beginning to take place with the (ARQL) stock. Late last week, the stock hit the $7.00 level and I was able to more than double my position in the stock. Yesterday the volume more than doubled the daily average and again today is moving up smartly. As I post the 52 week high is in striking distance.
If one uses the recent take out by Amgen, where they corralled Micromet for $1.16 billion, by applying the same market cap to (ARQL) you would get a share price well north of $15.00. ARQL data to this point has been positive, but they are at the same place as Micromet----will their Japanese partner wait until further data is released, or could they take the Amgen approach? If we get a new 52 week high over the next few days----------the take out issue will get hotter!!!! |
