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

To: chirodoc who wrote (8169)	8/16/2000 9:15:07 AM
From: Harold Engstrom	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9719

I have opinions about BLSI. First of all, I own some shares... So far, Altropane is the ONLY thing in the clinic. It had good PD PIII results. ADHD is a longer shot, for reasons Scott and others have noted. Still, PII for ADHD is complete and results are being analyzed. The other pipeline stuff has been WAY over publicized. The company publishes endless PRs about preclinical candidates. I wish they would just be quiet about them until they actually make it into the clinic. The company does apparently have close relationships with Mass General Hospital and Harvard Med School. That is somehthing in their favor. They also recently did a private placement to raise more money. I don't like the way they did it: through a Swiss bank - it is not clear to me what the deal was and who it was with and why the purchasing party was interested. I think there is enough liquidity in the US to support good ideas (especially in Boston for life sciences), so why did BLSI go overseas? BLSI merged with Greenwich several years ago. Supposedly, now they wish they didn't: apparently Greenwich did not have a very good reputation with the investment community - but, BLSI maintains that there are no common personnel between the old Greenwich and the current BLSI. But, as you noted, Altropane looks like it will generate some good revenue. If it is approved for ADHD, then it will generate some really great revenue. And their preclinical compounds look promising. I believe they have even partnered up with Pfizer on one of them. Well, it looks as though I've trashed one of my own holdings! Actually, I think BLSI has promise. I wouldn't buy more myself until seeing more execution - an NDA filed and approved, a marketing partner, another compound in the clinic. H

To: chirodoc who wrote (8169)	8/16/2000 12:46:53 PM
From: Mark Bong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9719

Chirodoc: Additional comments on BLSI I agree with Harold's comments, and I will add some additional information. First of all, BLSI is a virtual company according to it's business plan. That means that they have no plan for manufacturing their own products and marketing them within their own corporate entity. BLSI's objective is to license new and promising technology from Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals, mainly Mass General and Boston Children's. They will bring promising pharmaceutical or diagnostic (in case of Altropane) candidates from research into the clinic and through Phase III trials. Upon successful completion of Phase III, they will attempt to negotiate a lucrative licensing agreement with a major pharmaceutical company to market the product in exchange for up front payments and royalties. To date, their only candidate is Altropane, which appears to be very effective as a diagnostic toll for Parkinson's disease (PD). They are also testing Altropane as a testing agent for AHDH, an indication that would be very lucrative. BLSI seems to have been hinting that the Phase II results would be good, but as of yet there is no announcement, and none is expected until September or October. You should be aware that AHDH is no slam dunk, as Harold and Scott have indicated. BLSI has been a pump and dump stock, and their management's press releases have been used to make trading profits over the past few years. This seems to be moderating somewhat not that BLSI has a serious candidate for FDA approval, but only time will tell. BLSI is managed by scientists and Wall Street financial professionals. They have only recently (within the last 6 months if my memory serves me correctly) hired professionals from the pharmaceutical community to undertake their proposed FDA and licensing activities. BLSI has been guilty of providing an abundance of press releases. Some time ago, there were complaints that they did not provide information on a consistent basis, so they hired a PR firm, and since that time there have been many press releases. This firm does seem to have a very interesting pipeline that offers a lot of potential. Their association with HMS, MGH and Children's do give them a degree of credibility. However, it should be stressed that none of their candidates are in the clinic, although we here that Troponin will be in the clinic later this year at Sidney Farber. To sum up, I feel that BLSI has a lot of potential if any of their products beyond Altropane for PD can achieve FDA approval. BLSI is still a very risky equity, and you stand a reasonable chance of losing money at this price. In any event, I would encourage you to monitor this firm very closely. Future events could make this either a very attractive firm with significant price appreciation or one to be avoided. Please advise us of your thoughts once you look further into this company. Regards.