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

To: Alfred W. Post who wrote (480)	3/9/2001 12:00:17 PM
From: opalapril	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 656

To the best of my recollection their new plant in Washington should be operational by Fall -- possibly earlier. Check the recent news releases to verify.

To: Alfred W. Post who wrote (480)	3/9/2001 3:42:42 PM
From: LemurHouse	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 656

The Seattle research facility has nothing to do with the Enbrel supply constraint or indeed with the production of Enbrel at all. Enbrel is currently manufactured through a production agreement with a German firm. Due to the nature of the manufacturing, the extreme expense of building a plant, and the huge market success of Enbrel, IMNX is unable to produce enough product to meet demand. Patients are currently capped at (I think) approximately 7,000. There is a waiting list to receive the drug. IMNX is in the process of building (actually renovating) a production facility in Rhode Island. The new production facility will more than satisfy current demand, but is not expected to come on-line until the second quarter of 2002. When the new production facility is on-line, the supply constraints will be lifted and Enbrel sales will explode. I would have to check the figures to be sure, but I think the RA population alone could account for an almost doubling of Enbrel sales in the USA. (AHP, which owns 40 or 45% of IMNX has all rights to overseas sales of Enbrel due to an earlier cooperative agreement.) In addition to its main indication for RA and JA, Enbrel is being considered for congestive heart failure (CHG) and for psoriatic arthritis (PA) and such label expansion could occur this year or early next year. This would likely produce an immediate expansion of sales by a factor of 3 or more. Unlike other sectors of the economy right now, there is extremely good visibility for the prospects of this company during the near term. I.E. Enbrel is the treatment of choice for rheumatoid arthritis, and its sales are going to explode next year, when additional product can be put on the market. The addition of CHF and PA indicators are not factored into the current price (IMO) and would be significant movers for the stock. In addition, Imnx is expected to release PhII results for tests of its asthma drug Nuvance, later this quarter. Nuvance, if successful, could be a block-buster drug considering the size of the market, and could eventually exceed Enbrel in sales. Neither the CHF nor PA indications are guaranteed, but they look likely at this point. Nuvance is still in PhII and so cannot be counted on to achieve FDA approval. Immunex is a huge investment opportunity and is well worth your investigating further. I have a significant portion of my holdings in the company and plan on buying more before the end of the calendar year -- hopefully before the market begins to discount the improving Enbrel picture. I would not consider the current level to be overpriced if you are willing to wait 18 months. Obviously, you need to do your own research and to understand the investment proposition before putting any money down. Particularly look at present and predicted revenue figures for Enbrel, which I don't remember off-hand. I suggest the IMNX web site itself, as well as the last several conference calls, if they are still available. IMNX is very good about providing investor information. Good luck. AD PS: The production constraint problem was not the result of any short-sightedness by IMNX management. The problem was that it takes several years and a very great deal of money to build a facility which can manufacture this type of product. Not the type of commitment that a company can undertake before they get FDA approval for the drug. So, IMNX did the best they could by securing manufacturing commitments sufficient to launch the drug in the market, and then by moving as fast as they could to building their own production-volume facilities once the drug had in fact received FDA approval. They were able to speed the process somewhat by purchasing an older biotech facility that they can renovate, rather than having to build from scratch. So to answer your question, yes, the firm is well aware of the situation and I believe are doing the best they can to remediate.