Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : GUMM - Eliminate the Common Cold -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pz who wrote (1834)	12/7/1999 12:26:00 AM
From: Mad2	Respond to of 5582

In case you don't know it SI has as one of its esteemed members the resident head of the "online enforcement" for the SEC. Mad2 Member 3038133 Copyright 1999 Responsive Database Services, Inc. Business and Industry Copyright 1999 Securities Data Publishing Mutual Fund Market News November 15, 1999 RDS-ACC-NO: 02207244 LENGTH: 505 words HEADLINE: Cybersmear Becomes the New Internet Scam BYLINE: Mike Garrity HIGHLIGHT: The SEC is receiving a growing number of complaints about lies which anonymous users of the Internet are posting online--so-called cybersmears BODY: Short sellers, disgruntled current and former employees and others are creating an Internet headache that can be difficult to combat, according to a top securities regulator who monitors the Internet. The SEC is receiving a growing number of complaints about lies which anonymous users of the Internet are posting online, said John Reed Stark, chief of the SEC's office of Internet enforcement. The so-called cybersmears can hurt the stock price of a company, a fact that can effect mutual fund companies through their funds' investments or in the price of the stock of those fund companies that are publicly traded, Stark said. The smears also can unsettle a company's business partners, employees and customers, Stark said. "We're receiving a growing number of complaints about this problem," Stark said. "My view is that it's only going to get worse." Stark spoke at The National Investment Company Service Association's mutual fund compliance conference in Boston last month. The cybersmears take place in Internet chat rooms. There, individuals, either using a pseudonym or impersonating another, criticize a company or its products, deliberately using inaccurate information, Stark said. The comments can include purported inside information that predicts that the price of a company's stock is about to go down. Indeed, in at least one instance, one Internet user pretended he was the SEC, Stark said. "It's a fairly new phenomena," Stark said of the cybersmears. It is not unknown to companies, however. In May, for example, Stone & Webster of Boston, an engineering firm, filed suit in Massachusetts state court to obtain the names of those who used an America On Line chat room to discuss Stone & Webster. The conversations in the chat room included confidential company information such as the profit margin on a job Stone & Webster bid, said James Jones, general counsel for Stone & Webster, in an interview. Revealing that information violated company confidentiality policies and hurt the company's competitive position, Jones said. The suit is pending, Jones said. The SEC has had success prosecuting cases of Internet fraud, Stark said. Since 1995, the agency has filed more than 100 cases arising out of alleged securities law violations committed online. The Internet provides a medium where it can be easy to find fraud and, in some cases, stop those who set up fraudulent investments before the investments' organizers are able to raise money, Stark said. "The Internet is a tremendous window," Stark said. "We get to look at the developing fraud as it happens." The SEC, however, has yet to bring a case based on an alleged cybersmear. Such cases can be difficult to bring because statements made in a cybersmear can be couched as opinion protected by the First Amendment, Stark said. Companies can best defend against cybersmears by establishing policies which apply to employees about using confidential information and by deciding whether it wants to sue authors of cybersmears, Stark said. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH TYPE: Newsletter; Fulltext JOURNAL-CODE: MUTFUMAN LOAD-DATE: November 24, 1999

To: pz who wrote (1834)	12/7/1999 10:07:00 AM
From: Hank	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5582

Why should this matter to me? As SI Bob just pointed out, 99% of all posts I've had to respond to regarding GUMM have been personal attacks, not my comments about GUMM. Besides, nobody takes me seriously anyway, right? So why should anyone care what I say about GUMM? As for GUMM, my principle criticism of their product Zicam is, and has always been, the fact that their one and only "clinical" study was neither large enough nor statistically significant enough to convince either the scientific or the medical community at large of it's efficacy. It may have been good enough to allow them to make claims under the rules and regulations governing homeopathic remedies but that is a cheap cop out. GUMM states in it's own SEC filings that they are actively seeking strategic partnerships with, among others, pharmaceutical companies. I can assure you that IF their clinical data regarding Zicam was convincing enough to substantiate the claims printed on the side of every Zicam box that they would have had NO problem finding partners in the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, the big drug money would have been lining up to get a piece of the action. Obviously, this has never happened. I wonder why? If it had, then Zicam would indeed become a household name and GUMM would surely skyrocket, as everyone here predicts. The fact that this has never happened says a lot, in my book. So, GUMM is forced to hawk their snake oil under the guise of homeopathic medicine. Meanwhile, that nicotine gum contract that, by all the longs admission, is supposed to happen "by the end of the year" is still just a pipe dream, and with only 4 weeks to go before they miss the deadline. These are the reasons why GUMM is going down. These are the reasons why GUMM will continue to go down. All my own opinion, of course.