11/07/98 Copyright 1998, The Washington Post Co.
Shares of genetic research pioneer Geron Corp. soared yesterday, and stocks of many other drug and biotechnology firms got a boost as well, as small investors went into a buying frenzy over breakthroughs that may permit scientists to grow endless supplies of any kind of human cell.Though a long way from commercialization, the new research opens the possibility that dying brain cells in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients could be replaced, damaged heart tissue could be repaired, severed spinal cords could be rejuvenated, and replacement livers, kidneys and other organs could be grown in the laboratory and transplanted into people."It's another of the important steps on the road to regenerative and replacement medicine," said William Haseltine, chief executive of Human Genome Sciences Inc. of Rockville, a gene company not directly involved in the new research. "This is an extremely exciting discovery."What it isn't yet is a product likely to earn significant revenues in the near term for Geron, the company in Menlo Park, Calif., that paid for much of the research and owns rights to commercialize it. Scientists warned that the research could take a decade, perhaps far longer, to pay off in new treatments, assuming they materialize at all. That didn't stop small investors from grabbing Geron shares at any price yesterday.The run-up in the shares began Thursday as speculation spread about a forthcoming announcement of the research. But trading remained fairly restrained, with the shares rising a mere 31 percent over the previous day, to close at $9.87 1/2 in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.The new research was finally released Thursday after markets had closed. When trading opened on Nasdaq, prices soared. At one point, demand for Geron's shares so far outstripped supply that the shares traded as high as $24.50, a 224 percent premium over the price the shares were fetching at Wednesday's close.Optimism spread to other drug and biotechnology stocks. The shares of CytoTherapeutics Inc. of Lincoln, R.I., a company that seems to be farther along than Geron in developing implantable cells for nerve and brain diseases, rose 59 percent, closing at $1.84 3/8 a share. Numerous drug and biotechnology stocks got a lift as well.By afternoon, Geron shares had drifted lower, closing at $17.18 3/4, an increase of 74 percent over the Thursday close. It was the most active stock on U.S. markets, with trading volume 674 times the average volume of the previous week.The new research concerns human "stem cells," a kind of cell found at the earliest stages of human fetal development. Partly with funds from Geron, researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported success in isolating these cells and getting them to grow in the laboratory. The important thing about the cells is that, assuming scientists can learn to manipulate them, they could be induced to grow into almost any kind of tissue.No sooner had yesterday's frenzy begun than biotech experts started warning investors to tread cautiously. Geron is not alone in trying to develop treatments of this sort, and other companies, such as CytoTherapeutics , appear to be closer than Geron to entering human testing."They may have a tremendous thing there," said Harry Tracy, publisher of NeuroInvestment, a stock newsletter that follows this type of research. "But they've got a fair amount of work ahead of them before they can even talk about a viable, useful, implantable product." |
