Repost of the Annual Meeting summary from AOL
Subject: Annual Shareholders Meeting
Date: Wed, May 20, 1998 23:19 EDT
From: SAS266
Message-id: <1998052103194900.XAA17213@ladder03.news.aol.com>
The 1998 Shareholders Meeting was held in the Horizon Room at the Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley. It was a picture perfect morning in the Bay Area with unobstructed views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge from the meeting room.
A continental breakfast was served in typical Claremont fashion with fresh fruit and small pastries. All the Board members were available prior to the meeting to chit-chat with on any topic of ones choosing. Mr. Costello (CEO) looks rather youthful for a man of 62 years. Dr. Scannon was well groomed and appeared more relaxed this year. I was hoping to catch one of them in the parking lot to see if there have recently upgraded their cars ( a
bullish sign for the Company). Unfortunately they slipped by me.
The meeting was called to order at 09:00 and the usual Corp. issues as presented in the proxy statement were delt with quickly. Needless to say, all the Directors were re-elected.
Mr. Costello spoke for about 30 minutes going over recent progress of the various experimental drugs in the pipeline. The following is a summary of his comments and responses to questions asked by the individuals at the meeting. I will now be succinct.
#1. Meningococcemia Trial - March's interim analysis by the independent review board recommended that the trial continue (we all know this). The drug obviously did not show such extreme statistical efficacy to justify a premature approval status for rBPI. Dr. Scannon clarified this by stating we would need a statistically significant p value of say .005 for such early approval. He said such a rsponse was not expected and is essentially no cause
for alarm. A statistically significant response with a p-value of .05 would likely be enough to gain FDA approval at the completion of the trial. According to Dr. Scannon Xoma and the FDA agreed on a 2 year study with a minimum of 52 patients. Even though there are now over 120 patients that have completed the study Xoma is obligated to complete the 2 year period. Thus, this study WILL END in DECEMBER of 1998. Xoma hopes to have the drug
available for patients in early 1999. Xoma has applied for ORPHAN DRUG status for rBPI in Meningococcemia and hopes to have a respone from the FDA within the month. The next interim analysis is in Sept. of 1998, this is only 3 months prior to the completion of the study anyway and would only shave 3 months off the time to final FDA approval.
#2 The Phase III trial for rBPI in hemorrhagic shock will be completed some time in 1999. Dr. Scannon gave this encouraging observation...The FDA has accepted the results of the phase ii studies such that only one phase iii study will be needed for approval. Dr. Scannon said that the FDA often requires 2 phase iii studies prior to giving approval. He defined a successful phase ii study in part as one which shows such positive results that the FDA
then requires only one phase iii study. For this reason he is quite happy with the phase ii results. Xoma hopes to have rBPI available for physicians by the year 2000.
I'll continue with the review of the meeting later. Have to go now. Please note......I SUSPECT NOTHING OF MAJOR NEWS WILL OCCUR UNTIL THE RESULTS OF THE PHASE III STUDIES OF rBPR IN MENINGOCOCCEMIA ARE REPORTED. WE,AS SHAREHOLDERS, WILL HERE THIS NEWS AT THE EARLIEST IN SEPTEMBER AND MOST LIKELY BY 12/98 OR 1/99. So M. Murphy, in a sense, was correct. He's bullish long on Xoma, but for most of 1998 any money here isn't going to go anywhere;at
least not until the 4th quarter. I, for one, will continue to accumulate the stock at these levels.
If the Meningococcemia results are positive there will be good opportunity to make money for those who bought the stock at these prices. The next 9 months should be interesting . Ciao...SAS
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