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Biotech / Medical : Cistron Biotechnology(CIST)$.30 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: biowa who wrote (2588)	2/17/2000 2:58:00 PM
From: celeryroot.com	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2742

Seems to have alot of vol today. Maybe we ought to take a good look at it

To: biowa who wrote (2588)	2/17/2000 7:45:00 PM
From: biowa	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2742

Walter asked me to post this link to Genome Securities web pages on CIST. Since CIST has apparently fired Genome and there's no telling how long the site will stay, I've taken the liberty of extracting some of the key facts as well for other CIST newbies like myself. There's also some scientific background there. emedtrade.com The Company's principal properties consist of lnterieukin-1 beta ('IL-l'), a lymphokine which initiates the immune response, monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies to IL-1 ("IL-1 Antibodies), and an assay kit that measures IL-1 levels (the "IL-1 Assay"). Previously, Cistron manufactured a line of cytokine products that it sold to the research market worldwide.See Royalty Agreements. The Company's IL-1 products are based upon the technology derived from research funded by Cistron on Interieukin-1 beta, the predominant form of IL-1 in humans, at the New England Medical Center Hospitals, Inc., Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wellesley College (the "Institutions'), patents assigned to the Company as part of a litigation settlement and technology and patents developed by the Company. The Company has the following licenses under which no products have been developed to date: (i) a non-exclusive royalty free license from The DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company C'DuPont Merck') to certain IL-1 mutants and related technology under certain patents pending in the U.S. and internationally and (ii) an exclusive license from the Institutions (part of the same license that relates to IL-1 products) to develop an inhibitor to tissue plasminogen activator, which may have clinical utility in treating some bleeding disorders or inflammatory conditions. During Fiscal 1997, the Company settled its litigation against Immunex Corporation ("Immunex') and its litigation against PeproTech, Inc. ('PeproTech'). The Immunex settlement will provide gross aggregate payments to Cistron of $21 million less transactions costs [$11M upfront, $3M each 11/97, 11/98, 11/99, & $1M 11/2000] and the PeproTech settlement, a license fee of $718,000. In addition to owning the intellectual property rights on IL-1b , Cistron recently sold their research chemicals business to Techne Corporation?s subsidiary, Research and Diagnostics Systems, Inc. for cash and a royalty/license income stream. Cistron has obtained Pasteur M‚rieux as a corporate partner by licensing the adjuvant application of Il-1b for an equity investment, research commitment and potentially up to $31 million in milestones plus royalties. Cistron has a strong cash position with a book value of approximately $11 million. Cistron?s strategy is straightforward. We wish to license the intellectual property rights to this promising antibody for rheumatoid arthritis, multiple myeloma, or other disease applications. We are also interested in other business combinations including mergers, acquisitions or asset sales. While the Company is committed to furthering its development efforts in the areas of vaccines, adjuvants and therapeutics, it believes that its best alternative for maximizing shareholder value for its portfolio of technologies are through a strategic transaction to include a merger, acquisition or other business combination. An ideal business combination would include Cistron combining its assets with another company to exploit and commercialize its technology and thereby benefit its shareholders. Although the Company prefers one transaction of its portfolio of technologies,Cistron is willing to consider the sale of individual technologies where deemed reasonable. In addition, consideration for the transaction may vary between cash, registered stock or a combination thereof.