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Biotech / Medical : Cell Genesys (CEGE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Timoteo who wrote (692)	2/20/2000 9:00:00 AM
From: david james	Respond to of 1298

As stated in a Yahoo post $685 mill in ABGX stock + $230 mill in cash + stated book value of $41. That gives a book value of $956 million. The market cap is 1.15 billion giving a price to book of 1.2. This one has a ways to run in my opinion. moneycentral.msn.com Many biotechnology stocks, even among the recent winners, still sport market capitalizations well under $2 billion. Some of the biggest recent winners are still well under $1 billion in valuation. Cell Genesys (CEGE), for example, which is up 160% in the last three months, still has a total market capitalization of only $900 million. That's a far cry from the $20 billion market valuations awarded such money-losing Internet stocks as Ariba (ARBA) and Akamai Technologies (AKAM). ............. The best thing to happen to Cell Genesys in the last six months is a deal that didn't happen. In October, Genzyme (GENZ) offered to buy Cell Genesys for what amounted to a very cheap $350 million. Thanks to the rally in biotech stocks, however, Cell Genesys called off the deal in December -- a rising stock market had increased the value of the company's stake in Abgenix (ABGX) by $240 million since the Genzyme offer. (Cell Genesys subsequently has sold 25% of its stake in Abgenix for $168 million.) Cell Genesys, which focuses on developing gene therapies, is currently in Phase 2 clinical studies for its cancer vaccine in prostate cancer and Phase 1/2 clinical trials for its vaccine for lung cancer. Additional potential products at the preclinical stage include gene therapies for hemophilia, cancer, cardiovascular disease and Parkinson's disease. Cell Genesys' cancer vaccine is made up of tumor cells that have been irradiated and genetically modified to secrete a hormone which plays a key role in stimulating the body's immune response to vaccines. The most-advanced clinical trials for this vaccine are non-patient-specific: The drug could be sold "off the shelf" to any patient. Data announced so far shows that the vaccines are safe and result in preliminary evidence of anti-tumor activity. But these potential products aren't all that's in the Cell Genesys pipeline. The company owns a patent portfolio with more than 220 issued or granted patents, with another 335 pending.