bluejeans, I've been out and about while my hard drive "defragments" and I haven't had a chance to research LGND's latest press release, but a few things seem rather obvious.
Again, I don't think that the timing is a coincidence. Furthermore, I don't think that the addition of Ms Fash (which I believe is the first female on LGND's board) is a coincidence either. I expect LGND to move into breast cancer clinicals with both feet and now that they will soon have products, they are moving more into the "retail" arena. Since LGND's two niches are women's health and cancer, I think that a female with a information systems background is a very smart move (and I don't think that the incclusion of SA's VP title was a coincidence either).
By coincidence, I wondered onto the women's health initiative site this morning. I was please to see the Targretin study on breast cancer prevention (in rats) linked to the breast cancer clinical trails site. When it gets updated, I expect to see the recent paper on treatment to be also linked (the link is through Tamoxifen and breast cancer).
LGND's public profile will continue to grow and the will become a household name. The predicted articles in Business Week, Financial Times, and NY Times helped, but they were all business articles on new Diabetes treatments (and I suspect that similar article will continue because even I am getting requests for info for additional articles, so I assume that LGND's phone lines are on fire).
The breast cancer data was impressive, even though it was in rats. Targretin beat the current treatment of choice, Tamoxifen, in all areas (by a 2-1 margin), and I expect the women's health initiative to pick up Ligand's banner. Appointing a woman to Ligand's board was a very smart move and was yet another signal that LGND is moving toward PRODUCT development.
I suspect that the 20,000 hits to the web site also raised some eyebrows. The internet is a largely untapped resource for LGND and I expect their profile to grow rapidly in that area also. |
