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Biotech / Medical : Ciphergen Biosystems(CIPH): -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (66)9/10/2002 2:03:10 AM
From: tuck  Respond to of 510
 
Appreciate the compliment wrt writing, but I'm a newbie when it comes to patents. I just discovered the 18 month pre-grant rules, in which the application is not published for that long after it is filed unless the applicant requests it. With respect to the patent applications filed that Ciphergen mentioned in the 10-Q, it would appear that they aren't interested in publishing those yet.

I am trying to get a feel for when these multiple biomarker tests might be presented to the FDA. Trials would be quick, wouldn't they? Still, it would be several years from now, at best, before these could be commercialized. Some seem ready for that step when compared to the currently used screening tests.

I noticed an application for Retentate Chromatography, also by Hutchens, and filed the same day as the one concerning difference maps (6,225,047) assigned to Ciphergen. Ciphergen is not the assignee of this one:

20020123043 RETENTATE CHROMATOGRAPHY AND PROTEIN CHIP ARRAYS WITH APPLICATIONS IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

What this means, I don't know.

Cheers, Tuck



To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (66)9/11/2002 3:54:51 PM
From: tuck  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 510
 
With results coming out that seem to beat the current standard screening tests for a number of cancers, I'm thinking of asking Mr. Hogan or someone in IR if they have a rough timeline for trying to capitalize on this progress. Or what their benchmarks are and their values for them to embark on development of their own tests. I may get stonewalled, since I imagine competitors would also like to know this sort of thing, but I will probably make the call.

When compared to the study presented at AACR, this one seems a step backward, as sensitivity has dropped. But specificity is up noticeably, and this means the positive predictive value is way up, even for the general population:

>>Cancer Res 2002 Jul 1;62(13):3609-14 Related Articles, Links


Serum protein fingerprinting coupled with a pattern-matching algorithm distinguishes prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia and healthy men.

Adam BL, Qu Y, Davis JW, Ward MD, Clements MA, Cazares LH, Semmes OJ, Schellhammer PF, Yasui Y, Feng Z, Wright GL Jr.

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Cell Biology, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia 23501, USA.

The prostate-specific antigen test has been a major factor in increasing awareness and better patient management of prostate cancer (PCA), but its lack of specificity limits its use in diagnosis and makes for poor early detection of PCA. The objective of our studies is to identify better biomarkers for early detection of PCA using protein profiling technologies that can simultaneously resolve and analyze multiple proteins. Evaluating multiple proteins will be essential to establishing signature proteomic patterns that distinguish cancer from noncancer as well as identify all genetic subtypes of the cancer and their biological activity. In this study, we used a protein biochip surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry approach coupled with an artificial intelligence learning algorithm to differentiate PCA from noncancer cohorts. Surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry protein profiles of serum from 167 PCA patients, 77 patients with benign prostate hyperplasia, and 82 age-matched unaffected healthy men were used to train and develop a decision tree classification algorithm that used a nine-protein mass pattern that correctly classified 96% of the samples. A blinded test set, separated from the training set by a stratified random sampling before the analysis, was used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the classification system. A sensitivity of 83%, a specificity of 97%, and a positive predictive value of 96% for the study population and 91% for the general population were obtained when comparing the PCA versus noncancer (benign prostate hyperplasia/healthy men) groups. This high-throughput proteomic classification system will provide a highly accurate and innovative approach for the early detection/diagnosis of PCA.<<

Compare to the current situation:

208.37.5.109

Cheers, Tuck



To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (66)4/9/2003 5:26:25 PM
From: tuck  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 510
 
Dalal's tenure with Chiron was a good one. It's Chiron's blood testing business that has kept it's earnings positive these last several years.

>>FREMONT, Calif., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIPH - News) announced today that Rajen Dalal, President and Chief Executive Officer of Guava Technologies, Inc., has joined Ciphergen's Board of Directors. Rajen joined Guava, a biotechnology company based on mammalian cell profiling and analysis, in the spring of 2002 after a decade long tenure at Chiron Corporation where he was president of its Blood Testing division. Under his leadership, Blood Testing became the company's fastest growing and most productive division, with revenues exceeding $300 million. While at Chiron, Rajen led post-merger integration initiatives, corporate-level joint ventures, business collaborations, and technology licensing agreements in drug discovery, biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and gene therapy. Prior to joining Chiron, Rajen was a leader of McKinsey & Company's pharmaceuticals and technology management groups. Rajen received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from St. Xavier's College, the University of Bombay; his master's in biochemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and his MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability; a board member for Sagres Discovery, a cancer biotechnology company; an advisory board member of Outward Bound West; and a corporation member of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research.

William Rich, President and CEO of Ciphergen, stated, "Rajen's extensive experience in successfully building a major diagnostics business and now leading a pioneering effort as CEO of an early stage biotechnology company, brings important and relevant perspectives to our board."

Rajen Dalal added, "I'm delighted to be joining Ciphergen's Board of Directors. Biotechnology companies are developing powerful new diagnostic tools that are changing drug discovery, clinical trials and patient management. One of the more promising applications of the ProteinChip technology is the discovery of protein-based predictive diagnostics based on biomarkers and patterns of biomarkers."<<

snip, emphasis mine

Cheers, Tuck