To all, a fresh 'Buy' investment opinion has been issued by Robert A Swift, Ph.D., of Hanifen, Imhoff. I called his office and they said it is public information and I could put it on the net. Everything from here on is quoted;
*Techniclone announced today that it will reacquire the rights to Oncolym from Alpha Therapeutic Corporation. Oncolym is being investigated for use as treatment for nonHodgkins Lymphoma, which strikes 61,000 additional people per year.
*This is not a case of TCLN reacquiring rights due to developmental failure. We speculate that Alpha Therapeutic has chosen to focus its attention on opportunities other than the clinical development of new products, and we believe that the development of Oncolym is on track and on schedule.
*We believe that Oncolym could be the first radioimmunotherapy approved for nonHodgkins Lymphoma, and that it could receive accelerated FDA approval in 1998. We believe that the market potential of Oncolym in the U.S. could exceed $300 million.
*Techniclone may be undervalued given the milestones achieved for Oncolym and the value of its' technology platform, in our opinion.
Techniclone announced that it had regained the rights to Oncolym, its' monoclonal antibody which is furthest in clinical development, from partner Alpha Therapeutic, a subsidiary of Green Cross of Japan. Alpha Therapeutic recently reduced the size of its' clinical/regulatory group. We speculate that Alpha Therapeutic has chosen to focus its attention on opportunities other than the clinical development of new products. Therefore, it is not a surprise that Techniclone was able to regain the rights to Oncolym. It makes sense for the company to tske over additional clinical development of Oncolym. It has recently filed an IND for the treatment of brain cancer with its second radiolabled MoAb (I-131 TNT), and we expect another IND filing for the treatment of lung cancer.
The company is now in control of product development for its key products, this includes the late clinical development of Oncolym and the early clinical development of TNT. We believe that the acquisition of the rights to Oncolym is consistent with the company's restructuring plan. This plan includes pressing forward aggressively with clinical testing of its MoAbs to treat cancer and should continue with naming of a new CEO and perhaps other key managers in the near future.
Oncolym is the first iodine-131 (I-131) radiolabled monoclonal antibody (MoAb) therapy to enter a Phase III trial for the treatment of intermediate and high-grade nonHodgkins lymphoma (NHL). It has shown substantial clinical activity in a Phase II clinical trial; a complete response rate of 46% and partial response rate of 23% for a composite response rate of 69%. These results are impressive; the segment of lymphoma patients studied in this trial is very difficult to treat. In a recent meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the Phase III protocol for Oncolym was modified to accelerate completion of the current Phase III trial and expand clinical indications for Oncolym.
TNT MoAbs may kill lung cancer cells by binding to the necrotic, or dead, regions of cells found inside solid tumors. Since the TNT MoAb carries a radioactive particle to the interior of the tumor, and not the outside, destructive radiation emanates from the interior; this kills the nearby tumor cells while leaving distant, normal cells relatively intact. Preliminary results from data obtained in the U.S. and China support the potential of this novel approach as a "universally" applicable treatment for solid tumors. |
