Rick-
I came across RGEN about 9 months ago in an attempt to look up the chart of Regeneron, in which I am a somewhat recent holder. That was when I was still at Wahington University. I was intrigued by RGEN then and their reorganization but hated the chart pattern. I got on their mailing list, read several of their press releases, and have been interested but had not done any serious DD. Since I see that you have visited the company and talked to the management, would you take a poke at a few questions?
1) How does their combinatorial library seem? Is it primarily carbohydrate based and is there any problem with specificity of the hits or optimized compounds, if any? Do the hits interact with receptor carbohydrates? If either of these is affirmative, does this seem to be a solid approach? Other combichem libraries are biased towards small molecule lipophilic organics. I know several excellent libraries of this latter sort (MRK, other smaller, promising companies), but know of no other that targets cytokine-like receptor carbohydrates.
2) What is known about the specific chemokine targets that are the basis for the Glaxo collaboration? Has there been any successes here yet? Any press reports on this, or any relevant management discussion?
3) How many troops are working there in the trenches, what does the spirit seem to be, and how good are the assays?
Biotech Jim |
