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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer who wrote (1485)	8/27/2000 9:59:49 AM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 52153

Here's the description, from S-1/A, of what Dendreon is trying to do....... The immune system recognizes and generates a strong response to hundreds of thousands of different antigens introduced from the environment. Tumors, however, frequently display antigens that are also found on normal cells. Thus, the immune system may not distinguish between tumors and normal cells and, therefore, may be unable to mount a strong anti-cancer response. Tumors may also actively prevent dentritic cells from becoming mature, thereby preventing full activation of the immune system. Thus, we believe the key to directing the immune system to fight cancers is to modify, or engineer, tumor antigens so that they are recognized by the immune system and to manipulate dendritic cells to stimulate a vigorous cell-mediated immunity. That is direct, no-BS language. It is an approach that, given sufficient time and resources, is testable. I would consider anyone conducting such research -- with the motivation to help patients rather than to acquire wealth -- to be a heroine or hero. Mylovenge..... the nice thing about this approach is that there really is an antigen (an IgM "epitope" that is clonally restricted, in normal humans, to only a tiny fraction of lymphocytes). The clones that are transformed differ -- in their IgM coats -- from one myeloma patient to the next, thus necessitating the patient-specific approach. Bottom line, I guess..... if I were a MM patient, I'd want to participate in the trial. Toth probably has good reason for optimism, and I'd be very surprised if he didn't address these issues. OTOH, it's extremely difficult to avoid dogma in this arena. Many thought that Don Morton had it correct in 1970 at UCLA, using BCG vaccines for melanoma. For thirty years, in the face of objective evidence to the contrary, researchers and companies have claimed that spontaneous cancers are immunogenic. Sounds good. Sounds appealing. We want it to be true. Since 1976 and based on solid evidence, I've been saying "BS". It is obvious that this is the foundation from which DNDN has been built, and I'll bet that they've avoided mentioning lymphoma for good reason. Enough of this in the "valuation" thread?