Hello Greg,
Thanks for pointing me to the BJCT message board on YAHOO; it is frequented by investors looking for a hot stock and not willing to do any original work. It's a waste of time to deal with posters who are quick to ask questions but will not spend an evening reading old posts. Several really dumb posts;
BJCT: Being Set up for Pump and Dump?
by: jnsflajnsfla
or this one;
We hear Monday is the day for a takeover for BJCT. Anyone hear anything ?
by: joed41 (M/New Jersey)
I appreciate your response;
INFORMATION...PLEASE!!!
by: GRFINLEY (51/M/Valencia, CA)
1195 of 1201
And I thought this was a forum for the exchange of information.
Instead, today was hyper-hype day with daytrading thrown in for good measure. Bioject takeover...Monday? Where in heck did you ever hear that?
Now I admit that today's volume was rather high and that the momentum is definitely on the up...but I hope we can keep to the facts here and not dilude ourselves with less than the truth!
If anyone has anything substantive they can interject that will help put everything into perspective, please do so.
Always,
Greg
On to more important topics; do you remember the termination of the Schering deal?
Schering had been granted orphan-drug status for Betaseron, a beta interferon drug for the treatment of MS. One of the big problems with Betaseron was it required multiple daily injections, leaving unsightly skin bruises. Under contract with Schering, we developed the self-injector as a better means of Betaseron delivery. Biogen developed Avonex, a rival version of beta interferon, which is injected differently than Betaseron and averted skin side effects.
The FDA awarded Schering's Betaseron orphan-drug status in 1993. Usually the orphan-drug status is awarded to a company for seven years. In an unprecendented decision in 1996 the agency gave parallel orphan protection to Biogen's Avonex. Avonex sales quickly surpassed Betaseron and when Schering went to get FDA approval for the Bioject delivery platform the FDA requested phase 3 trials to be completed before granting a change. It looked like something was lacking in our self injector, which was not the case at all, just a decision by Schering to take another road to market. At the time of contract termination, Bioject was not allowed to market the self injector to another company for MS patients for two calander years. Well the two years should be up this spring and I have been watching for some news.
Over the Holidays I read an article in the November issue of Lancet, the UK medical journal. It documents the results of a 700+ patient study of Schering's Betaferon (marketed in the US as Betaseron). It gives evidence of significant delay in neurological deterioration of secondary progressive MS, the most severe form of the disease.
The study has been forwarded to European and North American regulatory agencies. The European Medicines Evaluation Agency recently recommended approval of Betaferon for use against secondary progressive MS - in addition to the less severe relapsing/remitting form of the disease. Schering officials expect formal clerance from the European Commission early this year and broadened approval during 1999 in the US! This was quite a suprise. Biogen has built quite a market cap on the strength of Avonex.
In another paper in the same issue is an account of upbeat results against relapsing/remitting MS by Ares-Serono's beta interferon. Marketed as Rebif, it received EU approval six months ago, and unlike rival beta interferon drugs, Rebif is available in PREFILLED SYRINGES, A BIG PLUS FOR MS PATIENTS WITH POOR SIGHT OR COORDINATION.
What's really significant is that the delivery platform is important in each of these drugs. I do believe the market is ripe for our self-injector. Has anyone heard news lately?
later, art |
