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Biotech / Medical : Biotech success, 2002 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Miljenko Zuanic who wrote (113)	1/1/2003 1:32:10 PM
From: dalroi	Respond to of 117

seems the fda is realy changing its pace Welcome, dalroi [Sign Out] Money Manager - My Yahoo! View - Customize Financial News Enter symbol(s) BasicDayWatchPerformanceReal-time MktDetailedChartResearchOptionsOrder Book Symbol Lookup Reuters UPDATE - Abbott wins early US ok for key arthritis drug Tuesday December 31, 6:38 pm ET By Ransdell Pierson and Edward Tobin (Adds details, quotes, share price, paragraphs 2, 9, 14-15) NEW YORK, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:ABT - News) on Tuesday said U.S. regulators had approved its rheumatoid arthritis treatment, Humira, and said it sees sales of the drug reaching $1 billion because it is easier to administer than rival treatments and may be safer. ADVERTISEMENT The approval, which had not been expected until mid-2003, is a huge boost for Abbott. The suburban Chicago-based company has struggled recently with quality control problems at its diagnostics division and safety concerns surrounding its diet drug Meridia. Humira will compete against Amgen Inc.'s (NasdaqNM:AMGN - News) Enbrel and Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ - News) Remicade. All three products work by blocking a protein called tumor necrosis factor that causes inflammation which attacks the joints. "This is a drug that Abbott really needed to take its pharmaceutical business to the next level," said analyst Jan Wald of A.G. Edwards & Sons, who doubled his revenue forecast for Humira to at least $120 million next year because it will reach patients months earlier than expected. Wald sees Humira eventually generating $800 million to $1 billion a year. Abbott, which sells prostate treatment Flomax and nutritional product Ensure, has global annual sales of about $16 billion. Amgen's Enbrel had revenues of $762 million in 2001, but its sales are expected to soon soar thanks to completion of a new manufacturing plant that will ease shortages of the popular injectable drug. "We are projecting Humira to have sales of at least $1 billion and it could go higher if it is approved for other uses," Steven Fischkoff, a senior Abbott research executive, said in an interview. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inherited disorder in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissue, resulting in inflammation of the joints of the fingers, wrists, knees and other parts of the body. The crippling disease affects an estimated 5 million people worldwide. Humira is also being studied in late-stage trials for treatment of psoriasis and Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition. Fischkoff said rheumatoid arthritis patients only need two injections per month of Humira, compared with eight monthly injections of Enbrel. Moreover, Humira comes in a pre-filled syringe, whereas patients must mix powder and liquid to create Enbrel. J&J's Remicade is typically given only once every two months, but requires a visit to the doctor's office for an intravenous infusion. Remicade, a monoclonal antibody that is 25 percent mouse particles, can also cause allergic reactions in some patients. Some patients also develop a resistance to the drug. Humira, also a monoclonal antibody, is made from all human materials that Abbott said are less likely to cause reactions. Abbott acquired Humira, formerly known as D2E7, in its $7 billion purchase of Knoll Pharmaceuticals from Germany's BASF (XETRA:BASF.DE - News) in March 2001. "Humira is very important for Abbott because it one of first drugs to come from its acquisition of Knoll, and it has a better safety profile and better dosing regimen than rival drugs on the market," Wald said. Abbott will sell the medicine worldwide and give a 5 percent royalty to Britain's Cambridge Antibody Technology Plc (London:CAT.L - News), which helped develop it. Shares of Abbott closed up $2.90, or 8 percent, to $40 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

To: Miljenko Zuanic who wrote (113)	1/28/2003 7:13:31 AM
From: Crossy	Respond to of 117

re: AMEX: IMA @ $16 (Inverness Medical Innnovation) not a typical biotech company this firm, less risk, more a "consumer" centered company. but the valuation is decent so I thought it should fite the "Biotech success" headline.. Homepage : invernessmedical.com biz.yahoo.com Industry: Biotech & Biomaterials, mostly Diagnostic kits and nutritional supplements Business summary: Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets consumer healthcare products, including self-test diagnostic products for the women's health market and vitamins and nutritional supplements. To a lesser extent, the Company develops, manufactures and markets clinical diagnostic products for use by medical professionals. Its existing self-test products are targeted at the women's health market and include home pregnancy detection tests and ovulation prediction tests. Inverness also sells a wide variety of vitamins and nutritional supplements. Its clinical diagnostic products include test kits used by smaller laboratories, physicians' offices and other point-of-care sites for the detection of pregnancy and a wide variety of infectious diseases. This is a very interesting company IMHO and I will include it in my "absurde value" portfolio. The company has been growing 5fold by acquisitions and from endogenous forces from $50m to $260m in annual revenue over the last 2 years. Valuations are still compelling: Price/Sales at 0.80 and Price/Book at 1.50. Gross margins are around 50% and further growth is almost assured. Only 14m shares out and the firm seems to be aiming at preventing dilution whenever possible. The company had acquired UniPath from Unilever, Wampole, IVC and other companies in 2002. Right now a move to acquire specialty Osteoporosis firm OSTX is in the works. SEC-Edgar info can be found here: sec.gov. Another factor is management. The company's CEO, Ron Zwanziger has already hit a "home run" twice. He founded MediSys and sold it to Abbot Labs for $800m. He then founded Inverness and sold its comprehensive diabetes line (an entire division) and sold it to JNJ for $1.2bn. Now he seems poised to do this again in pregnancy and other specialty diagnostic arenas like infectuous diseases. More than 24% of the common stock of Inverness is held by Mr. Zwanziger's family. But ivy-league investment bankers already joined shareholders' ranks: Deutsche Bank owns more than 5% as does SSB (Salomon Smith Barney), Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers own smaller percentages: biz.yahoo.com A December issue on "Inside WallStreet" of Business Week featured this company. One fund manager believes Inverness could grow to $1bn in revenues by 2004. The high Sales per share figure of this company ($18 sales per share), a hard to find revenue CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) in excess of 200% (revenues) coupled with nearly 50% gross margins are IMHO indicative of the earnings potential this firm has, a rare credential these days. An investor presentation, available on SEC Edgar gives an overview of Inverness strengths of adressed markets (18% of pregnancy test kits) and its strategy: sec.gov. Readers should note that Inverness was formerly called "Selfcare" in its early days. CEO Zwanziger's "theme" might be regarded as a "whole product" concept, introducing convenience and assurance, propped up by vertical related service and by-product offerings (complements) in formerly highly guarded "science" dominated fields, with notions of self-centered instead of customer-centered orientation. This is definitely a low risk, yet very compelling investment for the midterm (around 2 years). Since IMA (Inverness) combines the good valuation of an asset play (when you use DCF) with a sector consolidation and tremendous growth opportunity, I expect it to outperform not only the market but also its direct competitors by a wide margin. A takeout speculation for many times then comes on top of this.. Given the extraordinary opportunity, it's about time someone created a subject for this gem of a company..