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

To: Biomaven who wrote (7836)	2/6/2003 5:17:33 PM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

OK, this is wildly OT, and I hope it doesn't lead us even further OT, but I couldn't resist this quote from the French foreign minister addressing the UN yesterday: But Iraq must cooperate actively. This country must completely, immediately meet the requirements of Mr. Blix and ElBaradei, (inaudible) by committing the holding, without witnesses, of meetings between Iraqi scientists; by agreeing to the use of U-2 observation flights, by adopting legislation prohibiting the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction; Well, legislation like that is certainly going to finally put to rest the whole weapons of mass destruction issue. <g> That remark is certainly going to be a strong entrant in the little-known "Most Inane Comment Ever by a First-World Foreign Minister" category. BTW, I predict war in mid-March, no matter what Iraq does or does not do (and that's been my view for over a month now). Maybe some S&P puts to hedge against a non-ideal outcome is a smart idea. Everyone seems to be assuming it will go smoothly, but the notion of say an Iraqi chemical/biological attack on Israel, followed by a nuclear response, is at least not inconceivable. Peter

To: Biomaven who wrote (7836)	2/6/2003 10:11:26 PM
From: Biotech Jim	Respond to of 52153

The MRK GABA receptor alpha2/3 agonist anxiolytic compound was dropped, but the program was apparently not dropped. No comment by them on why it was dropped, could be due to tox or maybe insufficient levels to achieve the therapeutic effect, or perhaps efficacy of the mechanism. In their annual report, this was one compound that was highlighted. Big rearrangement of CNS now ongoing at MRK. Three sites for future CNS work, San Diego, West Point and Terlings Park. BJ

To: Biomaven who wrote (7836)	2/6/2003 11:12:40 PM
From: NeuroInvestment	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

A number of companies have tried to develop selective GABA-A drugs that are agonists only at the GABA-A subunits thought primarily related to anxiolysis (a2 and a3) while dropping out activity at other subunits associated with sedation or ataxia. Good idea, hard to execute. Pfizer/Neurogen had three selective compounds fail due to poor efficacy, NeuroSearch had one that demised due to mild allergic reactions (interestingly, at higher GABA concentrations, it became an antagonist at an unknown receptor site), and Pfizer/Indevus' pagoclone also ran into efficacy concerns, though Pfizer's last batch of trials were strangely set up--and the receptor subtype profile was never identified. Thus in mice, it seems that being selective for alpha2 and alpha3 works very well, the mice are quite relaxed, mentally sharp, good dancers. But being that selective in humans tends to drop efficacy as well. This is just a guess about the Merck drug, they havent called me yet to discuss the failure in detail..... Harry Tracy NeuroInvestment