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To: 2MAR$ who wrote (495)	1/21/2001 11:44:07 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 762

DNA ($53 sell) shares fall after 2001 EPS outlook trimmed LOS ANGELES, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Shares of biotechnology company Genentech Inc. (NYSE:DNA - news) fell nearly 13 percent early on Friday after the company said late on Thursday that its earnings growth would slow this year as it invests in new drugs. Shares of Genentech were $7-12/16 lower at $52-15/16 early on the New York Stock Exchange, well below their 52-week high of $122-8/16. After the company's report late Thursday of fourth quarter 2000 profits that met Wall Street estimates, Genentech Chief Financial Officer Louis Lavigne said earnings per share growth would slow to 20-25 percent this year compared with the 28 percent growth seen in 2000. He said the company remains committed to achieving an average annual EPS growth rate of 25 percent through 2005, but noted the target ``is not a minimum'' for any individual year. Prior to the updated guidance -- which works out to an EPS target of 72-75 cents -- analysts, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, had expected the company to earn 78 cents a share in 2001. Genentech, which said it will provide further details on spending at a February analysts' meeting, said it is gearing up for an expected launch later this year of Xolair, a treatment for allergy and asthma. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing an application for Xolair and Genentech said it plans to submit additional data on blood platelet counts in patients receiving the drug to the agency in late March. The FDA last year briefly suspended enrollment in an advanced safety trial of Xolair after several monkeys died of abnormally low blood-platelet counts after being treated in preclinical tests with high doses of a second-generation molecule related to Xolair. Genentech also said it is doubling sales force efforts for its cardiac business, which saw fourth quarter sales fall 24 percent and full-year 2000 sales drop of 13 percent to $206 million from $236 million in 1999. The company attributed the dip to growing competition and lower demand for clot-busting drugs in general due to greater use of angioplasty for heart attack victims and overall improvements in cardiac care. Genentech aims, however, to reverse the sales trend through a deal announced earlier this month calling for joint marketing of its clot-busting drugs with COR Therapeutics Inc.'s (NasdaqNM:CORR - news) blood clot inhibitor Integrilin. Analysts said they expect Genentech to increase in 2001 its spending on research and development -- which rose 34 percent to $490 million in 2000 from $367 million in 1999 -- particularly for clinical work on OSI-774, the anti-cancer compound Genentech will jointly develop with OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NasdaqNM:OSIP - news). The company's other clinical trials include evaluation of anti-CD11a in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis, anti-VEGF in colorectal and breast cancers and bosentan for heart failure. Email this story - Most-emailed articles - Most-viewed articles