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Biotech / Medical : VD's Model Portfolio & Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (7842)	4/8/2000 11:52:00 AM
From: Vector1	Respond to of 9719

Nice plug in Barrons from a portfolio manager for NPS. 500 mil in first years sales is high. Also, the stock is off its high of $31. I guess a fall to $11 is not a big move for this guy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 04/08 3:07A (BN) BARRON'S: Living Large With Small Stocks: A Fund's Disciplined Approach Generates Big Gains Q: Do you have a biotech favorite? A: One of the companies we like didn't run up much with the flurry in the stocks so far this year, and it hasn't been hit as hard on the downside. It's NPS Pharmaceuticals. They discovered a class of compounds called calcimimetics, which control a hormone that controls the level of calcium in the blood. They have a drug in Phase II right now for treating hyperparathyroidism, which is a pretty big market. We are figuring that if this drug is approved, it could be $500 million in initial sales. They have Amgen as a marketing partner. There are about 500,000 patients [who have abnormal calcium levels in their blood], and there is no therapy for it. The reason Amgen ties into this is that this condition affects 85% of all kidney-dialysis patients. Q: And, of course, Amgen's biggest drug, Epogen, serves the kidney-dialysis market. A: Right. So with Amgen as a partner, and the fact that they are getting pretty close on the approval process, we think there is pretty good visibility.(snip)