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Biotech / Medical : InterMune (nasdaq)ITMN -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Young who wrote (351)	1/25/2003 2:18:28 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Respond to of 508

Scott Harkonen must be down. He's a "patients first" biotech manager, a physician, first and foremost. He was probably really stoked for better data. But it looks like the therapy provides some benefit to patients with mild to moderate disease, and, if so, that's a medical advance. Perhaps it represents trouble with diagnosis down in "mild to moderate" land. If so, this data is at least part of that puzzle, and some patients with a disturbing spectrum of symptoms appear to be helped. For those who are facing the possibility that they've got a miserable, terminal disorder, that will be -- at least until more is known about early diagnosis -- reassuring. >> The actimmune extension data suggest the drug provides << It's a biological response modifier. It's a attempt to push the body's status around, to address a localized problem. One shouldn't expect miracles, IMO. The results seem, to me, good enough to support the business plan's downside provision, significant off-label use. I haven't been a shareholder since a period of rapid appreciation -- just as interest was beginning to build -- that many here caught. I forget what my exit price was, but..... I'd guess that it was a tad under the current quote. Given the downside that many biotech investors have been exposed to in the past two years, many can call this a punt......... finance.yahoo.com

To: Michael Young who wrote (351)	1/25/2003 4:17:09 PM
From: IRWIN JAMES FRANKEL	Respond to of 508

Hi Mike, "The actimmune extension data suggest the drug provides minimal, at best, help against IPF." Data from the extension was uniformly negative (as best I can tell). The case for using Actimmune in IPF was weakened statistically by this additional data. But it does not follow that, "...the drug provides minimal, at best, help against IPF". If we were left to the extension data ALONE we would conclude not that the drug provided minimal help but rather that it was worse than placebo - it was NO HELP at all. However, we have the data from the 48 weeks plus the extension period. When both are viewed together there is a 49% mortality improvement in the mild to moderate subset with a P=.02. That would be good enough for me if I were treating someone with mild to moderate IPF. ij