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Biotech / Medical : Guilford (GLFD) - Steadily Rising -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mopgcw who wrote (461)	12/31/2003 3:57:05 AM
From: Doc Bones	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 496

Guilford Pharmaceuticals Looks Up Optimism Is Demonstrated By Four Who Paid $546,211 To Purchase 90,900 Shares By TONY COOKE DOW JONES NEWSWIRES One way to simplify the process of judging the prospects for a biopharmaceutical company's product pipeline is to track the optimism of insiders, and four insiders at Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. spent nearly $550,000 this month on the company's stock. "I think it's extremely undervalued," said company director Solomon H. Snyder, who reported spending $409,391 to buy 68,000 shares, an average price of $6.02 a share. "At that price it's a bargain." In all, four Guilford insiders paid $546,211 to buy 90,900 shares, an average price of $6.01 a share, according to data provider Washington Service. At 4 p.m. Tuesday, Guilford traded at $6.65, up 29 cents, on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Dr. Snyder, a medical doctor who is director of the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and a co-founder of Guilford, said he strives to make a reasoned judgment when buying his company's stock. "I'm not 100% objective, but I try to be objective, especially when I'm spending money," he said. Analysts of insider transactions often look at an insider's history to evaluate the objectivity of current transactions. Past sales by a current buyer, especially well-timed sales, are deemed particularly revealing, because they suggest the buyer isn't primarily motivated by company loyalty. "The beauty of insider behavior -- especially when one is looking at ... buying activity -- is that it takes a lot of the complexity away from the process," said Michael Painchaud, research director for Market Profile Theorems. "When somebody acts with their pocketbook, the complexity is reduced and visibility is increased." Dr. Snyder most recently sold shares in May through July of 2001 -- getting $1,231,000 for about 56,024 shares -- or nearly $22 a share. Dr. Snyder said his 2001 stock sales weren't motivated by any pending news development, but were the result of a prearranged trading program. Visibility -- the ability to see what the future is likely to hold -- is a major issue for biotechnology companies such as Guilford, based in Baltimore. With a market capitalization of about $200 million and only $5.4 million in revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company's fortunes depend on its ability to get drugs into the marketplace. Dr. Snyder points to two promising drugs as causes for optimism -- one of them an angina drug recently acquired from Merck & Co., the other an injectable anesthetic in the latter stages of the regulatory-approval process. Dr. Snyder said his company's recent acquisition from Merck of the rights to Aggrastat, an injectable angina drug, bodes well for Guilford's future. He said that Aggrastat represents a much larger share of Guilford's business than it represented for the much bigger Merck -- and that Guilford can dedicate a relatively larger share of its resources to Aggrastat sales. The anesthetic drug candidate Aquavan is entering Phase III trials, the final stage before a drug is considered for approval by the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Snyder said. He said an anesthetic is relatively easy to put through clinical trials because its results are easier to evaluate than the results of many other types of drugs. "Because it's an anesthetic, which is so much more straightforward than many other drugs, you can be confident it's going to be fine," he said. "At least I am." Write to Tony Cooke at tony.cooke@dowjones.com Updated December 31, 2003 online.wsj.com