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Biotech / Medical : Repligen Corp (RGEN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (229)	5/22/2000 3:08:00 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 395

Cheryl: No, not really. However, I feel, still, that RGEN's management is sincere. I like these guys. That said, I was always (see thread) hesitant to believe in their approach to angiogenesis, and did not appreciate the way that they just quietly switched to autism and let angio slip away. No guts. Jim Silverman always had a bead on that issue. He just flat out said that they didn't have the resources to get it done. But, net-net, I like them. If you call and talk to Dan Witt, I think that you'll get a biased but clear view of what they're doing. I'm focused on other stuff, but CTLA-4 could pull me back quickly. Rick

To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (229)	5/22/2000 5:15:00 PM
From: Curtis E. Bemis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 395

The story of CTLA4-Ig is a fascinating one. A young, bright biochemist friend of mine gave me a copy of a book that details the CTLA4-Ig saga in a narrative fashion. Forever Young: Science and the Search for Immortality by Jim Schnabel Bloomsbury - œ16.99 - ISBN 0747537046 (Nov 98) Transplant immunology and GVHD, and the historical aspects are described. It was Craig Thompson at Howard Hughes Institute in Michigan that first suggested to Linsley that he make the CTLA4-Ig protein and, about a year after the two Science papers in 1992, Thompson, Linsley and Lenschow first used CTLA4-Ig to prevent transplant rejection (and to prevent autoimmune diseases). BMS,in 1989 after getting Oncogen in 1986 (BM) got Linsley and Ledbetter and shut off access to CTLA4-Ig. Lenschow and Bluestone at UofChicago, Thompson at Howard Hughes, and June at NMRI were denied access. Repligen made its own CTLA4-Ig, different from the BMS, and Thompson, with Repligen filed suit against BMS contesting that the patent was invalid. BMS did some trials with patients with psoriasis then shut down BMS lab in Seattle in 1997. I'm glad to see RGEN get the Tolerance-Bluestone patent rights. That locks down the GVHD stuff and others. For an interesting narrative, I can suggest the above book.