Shire Shares Rise on Report About Alzheimer's Drug
Bloomberg News
July 20, 1998, 11:01 a.m. ET
Shire Shares Rise on Report About Alzheimer's Drug (Update2)
(Adds fund manager comment in 4th paragraph.)
London, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Shire Pharmaceuticals Plc
shares rose as much as 13 percent after the U.K. drugmaker said
an Alzheimer's drug it is developing with Johnson & Johnson
seemed to slow the progress of the brain-wasting disease.
Shire rose as much as 61.5 pence to 549p, and recently
traded at 540p. Meconic Plc, an Edinburgh, Scotland-based
drugmaker that supplies raw materials for Shire, gained as much
as 16p, or 7.5 percent, to 230p. Shire and Johnson & Johnson
presented data at the 6th International Conference on Alzheimer's
Disease and Related Disorders in Amsterdam at the weekend.
Shire and Johnson & Johnson, the world's fifth-biggest
drugmaker, are aiming to break into a $2 billion market for
treating Alzheimer's disease that analysts say could grow rapidly
as new treatments are introduced. John Hatherly, a fund manager
with M&G Group Plc, said he's optimistic about Shire's prospects
at a time when investors are fleeing the U.K. biotechnology and
small-capitalization drug sector.
''It has elements of biotechnology, but these days having
biotech stocks is a bit like having a lead balloon,'' said
Hatherly, who says M&G holds an undisclosed stake of less than 1
percent of Shire's stock. ''Shire quite definitely has substance
and if you are risk-averse, you can hold it.''
The drug, galantamine, is similar to others on the market,
including Pfizer Inc.'s Aricept, although it acts in a slightly
different way in the brain than other drugs, Shire said. It said
the drug can ''significantly improve'' patients' scores in a test
used to measure progress of the disease, although Shire continues
to test it in phase 3, or final-stage, clinical trials.
Biggest Seller
''The typical patient who took galantamine for a year showed
a level of cognitive function that was comparable to their level
when they began the study,'' said Shire in a statement. ''In
further research, we are working to replicate these findings.''
If approved, the drug is likely to be Shire's biggest seller
and sold under the trade name Reminyl. It will be sold by Johnson
& Johnson's Janssen unit in the U.S. and most of Europe. Shire
will copromote it with Janssen in the U.K. and Ireland.
''There's still a long way to go yet,'' said Steve Abbott,
an analyst with Credit Lyonnais Securities. ''It looks reasonably
encouraging but not stunning.''
Side-effects included nausea, vomiting and other
gastrointestinal effects, which Shire said ''often subsided''
after a week.
Shire also sells drugs to treat attention deficit disorder,
or hyperactivity, in children, hormone replacement treatments and
other drugs.
The Alzheimer's conference in Amsterdam will continue for
most of this week.
--Dane Hamilton in the London newsroom (44-171) 330-7727/ab/ph
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