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

To: Icebrg who wrote (499)	3/30/2003 5:36:36 PM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1022

Abgenix vs. Medarex. Based on Friday's closing prices Abgenix now has a market cap. that is more than three times higher than that of its rival. (776 mUSD against 248 mUSD according to Yahoo). Historically seen, that is "too much" of a difference. Since its most current low of 4,58 recorded on February 13 the share prices has risen 93 % to 8,86. Medarex meanwhile has only managed 16 % over the same period. From 2,81 to 3,25. That's too much of a difference, even if investors for whatever reasons generally seem to prefer Abgenix before Medarex. During the period Abgenix has benefited from positive speculations with regard to Erbitux and EGF receptor antagonists in general. (ImClone has during the same period seen an increase in its share price of 68 %). As things stands at present the valuation of both companies is most probably heavily influenced by their resp. flagship programs. In Abgenix's case this is as noted ABX-EGF, which the company is developing in a 50/50 partnership with Amgen. For Medarex the flagship product is MDX-010, which the company is developing in a number of clinical trials. For me, from my uninformed position, Medarex actually seems to be the more attractive company of the two. Their pipeline is broader and they have an additional international exposure thanks to their equity holdings in Genmab and IDM. The MDX-010 program is still 100 % owned by Medarex. There are of course some questionmarks hanging over MDX-010. How should one value a product that is supposed to be used as an adjuvant to a type of drug that has not yet seen any signs of approval in the US, despite the fact that there has been and is a lot of interest in the class? Evidently not very generously, judging from what we are seeing now. I would appreciate thoughts on the relative valuation of the two. (776 mUSD for ABGX seems very high to me btw., regardless of what value the market puts on MEDX). Erik