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Biotech / Medical : Incyte (INCY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Herc who wrote (1294)	1/3/2000 9:25:00 PM
From: Biomaven	Respond to of 3202

Herc, The problem with small biotechs is that most are one shot--one product--wonders with ensuing nerve wracking volatility. INCY is about as far as a biotech can be from being a one shot-- one product--wonder. It doesn't have any traditional biotech products at all - it (like CRA) is essentially a pure intellectual-property play -it sells information, not drugs. The fact that INCY got wacked for missing its quarterly numbers (largely because it accelerated R&D spending) just demonstrated how little understanding of INCY the street had at that time. INCY is particularly hard to value though, because it is hard to know how much of its present value should be derived form current subscription fees to its database and how much should be derived from the eventual royalties on its IP that it should earn many years down the road. Interestingly today one of its partners (CVTX) barely budged when announcing they had won an award for determining (with INCY) part of the genetic basis for HDL cholesterol levels: Monday January 3, 7:30 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: CV Therapeutics, Inc. CV Therapeutics Establishes Tangier Drug Discovery Program CVT Tangier Gene Discovery Selected by AHA as Top Ten 1999 Research Advances In Heart Disease PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- CV Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CVTX - news) announced today the establishment of the Company's Tangier Drug Discovery Program to focus on discovering and developing therapeutics to increase levels of HDL, the ''good'' cholesterol. CVT's discovery of the gene defect in Tangier disease was recently selected by the American Heart Association as one of the top ten 1999 research advances in heart disease and stroke. CVT scientists and their collaborators have identified ABC1 as the gene that is defective in Tangier disease patients. Tangier disease is a rare genetic disorder which results in very low levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), and is associated with increased risk of heart disease. CVT scientists also demonstrated that modulating the amount of ABC1 in cultured cells effects the rate at which cholesterol is removed from cells. These discoveries were presented at the American Heart Association's 72nd Scientific Sessions and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 1999. ''The exciting new discoveries in the field of cholesterol efflux and HDL production give us the opportunity to seek the means of removing excess cholesterol from the blood vessel walls of Tangier patients as well as the millions of people who face an increased risk of heart disease due to low levels of HDL,'' said Richard M. Lawn, Ph.D, Vice President, Discovery Research and head of the Tangier Drug Discovery Program at CV Therapeutics. CVT scientists are continuing to build on the ABC1 discovery, with the goal of finding compounds that may reduce plaque burden by increasing the ability of the ABC1 protein to remove excess cholesterol from blood vessel walls. To this end, CVT scientists are studying the function of ABC1 in cell culture and animal models, and the ways in which cells modulate the production of this key component in the pathway of cholesterol removal. ''The Tangier Drug Discovery Program is another example of how CVT utilizes molecular cardiology, the application of molecular biology to cardiovascular disease, with the goal of developing new mechanistically-based therapies for those patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases,'' said Louis G. Lange, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of CV Therapeutics. The CVT Tangier Drug Discovery Program is developing or has developed a number of key tools in its search for a drug to raise HDL. These include analysis of the control elements of the ABC1 gene; use of recombinant DNA expression systems and specific antibodies to study the structure and function of the ABC1 protein; the development of high throughput drug discovery assays and chemical screens based on ABC1 function and gene expression; the development of animal models to test in vivo function and drug response; and systems to identify additional potential targets in the pathway of cellular cholesterol efflux. In addition, CVT's Tangier Drug Discovery Program will continue to use gene expression microarray technology and access its network of outside expert collaborators. In addition to historical information, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, uncertainties related to CVT's early stage of development and clinical trials. Actual results could differ materially. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are more fully discussed in CVT's Prospectus dated October 6, 1999. CV Therapeutics, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on applying molecular cardiology to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel, small molecule drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. CVT currently has three drug candidates in clinical trials. Ranolazine, the first in a new class of drugs known as partial fatty acid oxidation (pFOX) inhibitors for the potential treatment of angina, is in Phase III clinical trials. CVT-510, for the potential treatment of atrial arrhythmias, is in Phase II clinical trials. A third product, CVT-124, for the potential treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF), is in Phase II clinical trials. For more information, please visit CV Therapeutics' web site at www.cvt.com. SOURCE: CV Therapeutics, Inc. (I added some to my CVTX holdings today) Peter