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Biotech / Medical : Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MLNM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: keokalani'nui who wrote (925)2/13/2002 6:42:38 PM
From: Mike K  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 3044
 
Gruntal Report;

Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.# (MLNM - $21.47 a/o 8:00 AM EST, 2/13/02)

1-1(Outperform-Outperform)
Intermediate Target Price: $49
Long Term Target Price: $57
Suitability: Aggressive Risk
Millennium Pharmaceuticals Closes Merger With COR Therapeutics; Reiterate 1-1

"Yesterday, Millennium announced the closure of the company’s merger with COR Therapeutics (CORR-NASDAQ, $20.75, not rated), which became effective following the approval of the companies’ respective shareholders. Millennium will issue 0.9873 shares for each CORR share outstanding and the combined company will retain the name Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., with worldwide headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As a result of the merger, Millennium now has a total of approximately 1,200 scientists in R&D, and has added a new
therapeutic area in cardiovascular research to the company’s discovery effort, which had previously consisted of oncology,
metabolic, and inflammatory diseases. Millennium’s cardiovascular franchise is led by Integrilin (eptifibatide), the leading GP IIb-IIIa platelet inhibitor for acute coronary syndromes, with 2002 revenue expectations of approximately $300 million.

On February 6th, COR announced the publication of positive follow-up data from the company’s ESPRIT trial, which was
designed to assess the efficacy and safety of Integrilin in patients undergoing non-urgent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with various intracoronary stents currently used in clinical practice. The results, which were published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) illustrated that one year following intracoronary stenting, Integrilin led to a significant reduction in the incidence of death or heart attack from 12.4 percent with placebo to 8.0 percent (P=0.0010).

We expect Millennium’s track record of successfully integrating previous acquisitions to continue with the successful integration of COR’s assets. Millennium will assume approximately $600 million in convertible debt that was issued by COR through two offerings. We expect Millennium to propose extending the life of the convertible debt under more favorable terms to current holders in order to avoid using cash to buy the notes at face value and issuing stock at these currently depressed levels.

Millennium currently has 10 drug candidates in clinical trials and we expect a significant amount of clinical news flow in 2002. In the near-term we expect investor interest to be driven by a clinical update from the CRUSADE trial for Integrilin at the ACC meeting in March and results from the phase II trial for MLN341 in relapsed refractory multiple myeloma as well as updates from various combination studies for MLN-341 at ASCO in May.

We continue to believe that Millennium Pharmaceuticals is one of the best-positioned companies to translate gene discovery into drug compounds. We continue to rate Millennium shares a 1-1 outperform, and expect investor interest to increase as the company broadens the development of its three current franchise areas: oncology, inflammation and metabolic disease over the next 12 to 18 months and successfully integrates the assets of recent acquisition, COR Therapeutics, which will add a fourth franchise area, cardiovascular disease."



To: keokalani'nui who wrote (925)2/27/2002 10:59:55 PM
From: keokalani'nui  Respond to of 3044
 
Proteasome Inhibitor PS-341, a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Adult T-Cell Leukemia
Chalet Tan and Thomas A. Waldmann1
Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1374

Nuclear factor B (NF-B) plays a major role in the pathogenesis of human T-cell lymphotrophic virus I-associated malignancy. Proteasome inhibitors provide a rational approach to control constitutively activated NF-B in human T-cell lymphotrophic virus I-infected T cells. We report that the proteasome inhibitor PS-341 decreased NF-B DNA binding activity by preventing degradation of IB. In our murine model of adult T-cell leukemia, PS-341 used alone did not yield prolongation of the survival of tumor-bearing mice. However, when combined with the current clinically approved drug humanized anti-Tac, therapy with PS-341 was associated with a complete remission in a proportion of treated animals, whereas only a partial response was observed in animals treated with humanized anti-Tac alone.

2/15 Cancer Research

And from feb The Oncologist:

Development of the Proteasome Inhibitor PS-341
Julian Adams
Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence: Julian Adams, Ph.D., Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 75 Sidney Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. Telephone: 617-551-3674; Fax: 617-679-7370; e-mail: jadams@mpi.com

Over the last decade, the critical role of the proteasome in cell-cycle regulation has become increasingly apparent. The proteasome, a multicatalytic protease present in all eukaryotic cells, is the primary component of the protein degradation pathway of the cell. By degrading regulatory proteins (or their inhibitors), the proteasome serves as a central conduit for many cellular regulatory signals and, thus, is a novel target for therapeutic drugs. PS-341 is a small molecule that is a potent and selective inhibitor of the proteasome. In vitro and mouse xenograft studies of PS-341 have shown antitumor activity in a variety of tumor types, including myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer, among others. Although PS-341 rapidly leaves the vascular compartment, a novel pharmacodynamic assay has shown that inhibition of proteasome—the biologic target—is dose dependent and reversible. These studies provided the rationale for a twice-weekly dosing schedule employed in ongoing clinical studies. Phase I trials in a variety of tumor types have shown PS-341 to be well tolerated, and phase II trials in several hematologic malignancies and solid tumor types are now in progress. Efficacy and safety data from the most advanced of these, a phase II multicenter trial in myeloma, will be available in early 2002.

theoncologist.alphamedpress.org