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Biotech / Medical : Celltech Group (NYSE: CLL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (21)	1/17/2001 5:08:27 AM
From: dalroi	Respond to of 123

Related Quotes Celltech Group CCH.L 1116 +62 GlaxoSmithKline PLC GSK.L 1810Four firms vie for Celltech arthritis drug By Ben Hirschler, European pharmaceuticals correspondent LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Celltech Group Plc is talking to four leading pharmaceutical companies interested in a pivotal licensing deal for its rheumatoid arthritis CDP 870, Finance Director Peter Allen said on Tuesday. A licensing deal for the product, which analysts believe should generate peak annual sales of more than $500 million, could be struck by the end of March. "There are four pharmaceutical companies, all very substantial, who have shown an interest in CDP 870. They have done their due diligence and we are talking with them," Allen told Reuters. He declined to name the firms involved but analysts said they were likely to include U.S. groups Pfizer Inc , which expressed interest in CDP 870 during an industry briefing last year, and Pharmacia Corp , along with newly merged British giant GlaxoSmithKline Plc . Both Pfizer and Pharmacia have strong existing arthritis franchises while GlaxoSmithKline is keen to license in drugs to make up for a gap in its near-term product pipeline, following a a series of failures last year. Celltech, Britain's biggest biotechnology company, reported its first ever profit last year and income from a deal on CDP 870 is expected to underpin earnings going forward. Celltech's arthritis drug is one of a growing class of antibody-based drugs which have shown promise in fighting autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, as well as cancer. Lehman Brothers earlier on Tuesday upgraded its recommendation on Celltech shares from "market perform" to "buy" on expectations that news from company would improve in the coming months. Analyst Ian Smith, who has a price target of 12.50 pounds on the stock, said the announcement of a big pharmaceutical marketing partner for CDP 870 was likely to be a high point. Celltech is due to report key Phase IIb clinical trial data for CDP 870 later in the year, along with trial results for Humicade for Crohn's disease, a chronic gastrointestinal disorder. CDP 870, which blocks a chemical known as TNF that is implicated in inflammation, could reach the market in late 2003. Humicade, a smaller product, is a year ahead of CDP 870 and is likely to be marketed by Celltech itself. Shares in Celltech, which have fallen from around 15 pounds in the last four months, ended 2.6 percent higher on the day at 10.54 pounds.