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Biotech / Medical : SCIO Scios Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rkrw who wrote (1461)	2/7/2003 4:57:37 PM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1477

Suddenly the street discovers the potential of a P38 inhibitor: Scios, rivals race to transform arthritis treatment - Feb 7, 2003 04:13 PM (Reuters) - finance.lycos.com ============ By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A potential breakthrough arthritis drug has raised the profile of Scios Inc., considered a step ahead of rival drugmakers racing to develop similar pills and to pit them against today's blockbuster injectable treatments. Shares of Scios (NASDAQ:SCIO) soared Friday on reports it is in talks to be acquired by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and that J&J might be willing to pay up to $2 billion for the Sunnyvale, California-based biotech company. Industry analysts said the immediate draw for J&J is Scios' two-year-old drug for heart failure, called Natrecor, that is expected to eventually garner annual sales of over $500 million. But J&J would also acquire an experimental Scios pill for rheumatoid arthritis, called SCIO-469, that could become a far bigger product if it is approved. It is currently in Phase II clinical trials and perhaps years away from proving whether it is safe and effective. The pill works by blocking the p38 kinase enzyme, whose chemical messages stir up inflammation-causing proteins such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and COX-2. "The p38 kinase target is major, and most of Wall Street hasn't woken up to that yet," said Richard Stover, an analyst for Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder. "That therapeutic approach is one of the most exciting things going on in the pharmaceutical industry today." Besides taming arthritis, Stover said p38 kinase drugs might also prove effective in treating heart problems by inhibiting C-reactive protein, an inflammation-causing substance many doctors now believe is more harmful to the heart than cholesterol. "The Scios drug could become a $2 billion-a-year product in the best-case scenario, if it is the first-approved p38 kinase inhibitor and works against both TNF and COX-2," said SG Cowen Securities analyst Philip Nadeau. Many other drugmakers are in earlier stages of developing p38 inhibitors to treat arthritis, including Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX), London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc (ISEL:GSK), Japanese drugmaker Sankyo (TOKYO:4501) and Woburn, Massachusetts-based biotech ArQule Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQL). Safety problems, including toxicity to brain cells of laboratory animals, have killed previous such drugs -- including one developed by Vertex. "Although safety concerns have tripped up previous p38 candidates, there's a good chance somebody will get one of these drugs to market. And that will cause a lot of excitement," Nadeau said. Rheumatoid arthritis, which affects an estimated one percent of the population, is a genetic disease in which the immune system becomes overstimulated and attacks the body's joints. Two of the best-selling drugs for the disorder are Amgen Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMGN) Enbrel and Johnson & Johnson's Remicade, which both target tumor necrosis factor and each have annual sales of about $1 billion. Abbott Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:ABT) won approval in December for Humira, an anti-TNF drug it expects will bring in eventual annual sales of $1 billion. Although highly effective, all three anti-TNF drugs must be injected -- a hassle that could play to the favor of more-convenient p38 kinase pills if any are approved. Pharmacia Corp (NYSE:PHA)'s Celebrex and Merck & Co's (NYSE:MRK) Vioxx, which have combined annual sales of more than $5 billion, both treat rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis by blocking the COX-2 protein. Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, is caused by normal wear and tear of the joints. (Additional reporting by Jed Seltzer and Toni Clarke) Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service The other known serious competitor in the P38 race not mentioned in this story is Boehringer Ingelheim. Peter