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

To: Ian@SI who wrote (1638)	4/6/2001 6:12:12 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2344

April 6, 2001 Talk Of Collaborative Agreement Boosts Biomira Stk By ANDY GEORGIADES Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES TORONTO -- Biomira Inc. (BIOM) shares are higher Friday after a report that the company is preparing to sign a collaborative agreement for its lead product. "What we've said publicly is we are in the final stages of negotiations with a potential collaborator for our two lead products...which are vaccines for breast cancer and lung cancer," Bill Wickson, a Biomira spokesman, told Dow Jones. According to the "Inside Wall Street" column in the latest Business Week, a fund manager said Biomira will receive $10 million from a drug maker to co-market the Theratope vaccine worldwide. Wickson said the article is full of speculation, and declined to discuss any details of the pact. He only reiterated that negotiations have reached the "final stage" and an announcement should be made "shortly." On Nasdaq Friday, Biomira is up 94 cents, or 16%, to $6.94 on about 528,000 shares. Company Web Site: biomira.com Biomira Inc. (BIOM) spokesman Bill Wickson said the company had previously said it would announce a marketing partner by the end of March. But the company's plans hadn't reached U.S. radar screens until now. "It hasn't been widely disseminated in the U.S.," he said. "It seems when we get U.S. articles such as this in a major U.S. publication," the share price responds. Wickson noted that U.S. holding of its shares has risen to about 56% from about 20% over the past few years. He also noted that the company is courting U.S. analyst coverage. "We do belive that, as we move closer to both the collaboration and our trial results, there's going to be a lot more interest," he added. Biomira recently completed the enrolment of more than 1,000 women for a Phase III Theratope vaccine trial for metastatic breast cancer - the largest trial ever for this disease. The first interim analysis - time-to-disease-progression - will occur in the third quarter of this year, and will be followed by a second interim analysis looking at survival. A final analysis of data won't commence until mid-2003. That another company has "stringently" looked at Biomira's clinical results and research, and is willing to come aboard as a partner, is a "third-party validation of what we're doing" for shareholders, he said. Canaccord Capital analyst Wayne Schnarr agreed. "A partner for a drug is viewed as the only independent validation other than the (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) approving it," he said. "So whenever you have a partner, it does have an effect generally on the stock price, as long as the partner is a name company in that particular therapeutic area." Schnarr, who has a "strong buy" rating on Biomira, said the company is now in the "final stretch." "When you've got an interim analysis coming at the end of the year, you're approaching the make-or-break point," he said. Meanwhile, the company is also enroling patients for its BLP25 Liposome vaccine Phase IIb study for lung cancer. -Andy Georgiades