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Biotech / Medical : wla(warner lambert) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lazarre who wrote (848)	6/22/1999 3:32:00 AM
From: John Romeo	Respond to of 942

AVANT started its short history as two merged small cap biotechs.One, was T Cell Sciences, which I had followed since 1988. They had two key areas of focus.A complement inhibitor then called TP-10 and new low cost diagnostics for measuring Tcell, immune cell,levels. The company does have an approved and available lab test for CD-4 TCells.I believe it was intended to replace an expensive,infrastucture,time limited lab test.Previosly CD-4 and CD-8 Tcell counts were completed at fairly high cost, their test a non ELISA based cost, 1/4,didn't need refrigeration,samples had long shelf life and results could be read on a $5000 reading plate,versus $250,000 piece of equiptment.They took 6 years and about $30MM (my educated guess)to get this approved and licensed selling to 3rd party division of IVAX,called Diametrics.Unfortunately,that was when Ivax was falling apart from the balance sheet and P@L and the test fell through the cracks and is never mentioned by the company and they avoid it any way they can. Basically it was a total Flop! That caused a coup a few years ago 1995 which saw the ouster of the onetime Biogen VP and then CEO of tcell ALLAN TUCK his job. It was a morning press release and afternoon conference call when we were told that the company's Chief Scientist UNA RYAN Ph.d, was installed. She later was given title of chairman and ceo.The teleconference that day was the most exciting news in the last 5 years.Una,told us of a new Tcell,one that brought in a new cfo,from Sothebeys,I still don't see the connection, other than auctioning off the company.A more focused company using their Tcell technology and complement cycle inhibition compounds.Indications were for ARDS,Severe Burn Patients,Heart Attack and other immunosuppresive maladies. During the call she touched on new work that had shown promise in reducing plaque in severely atherosclerotic arteries in lab animals. The work has continued and now we are at phase I. During this period a deal with another small biotech company was reached to merge the 2 companies into AVANT Immunotherapuetics. I don't recall the name of the other company it had to do with Virus Research.It also had $25MM in cash which TCELL badly needed.So a stock deal was done and the new company formed.They recently this week, announced positive news on their rotavirus vaccine, which is huge, about 200,000 illnesses year in US. They are underfunded,underfollowed,only Vector Securities which did an add on sale of stock, did the obligatory strong buy research. I have sat on the shares since the mid 90's and at around 4. I don't need the money so I let the stock sit,just in case they really do have a cholesterol vaccine,as they claim.The complement inhibitor is in phase II for renal transplant,and repurfusion injury in open heart surgery. It is a strong ARDS candidate in the clinic. This stock had traded in the late 80's early 90's as high as $16 a share. Some people made some good money back then.Well just about any biotech name with a good story did well then. Another one I loaded up on at the same time and bought at 5 and held,was Biomatrix BXM,it ran to 90 pre split! So if I get a couple like that and the rest are like AVAN the payoff is worth the stay. Disclaimer: I am long AVAN.All information shared above was written contemporaneously from memory and needs further update.