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

To: fred hayes who wrote (12209)	7/2/2004 10:24:50 PM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 52153

Without commenting on the pipeline, the TSX Venture Exchange used to be known as the VSE (Vancouver Stock Exchange). If memory serves me well, they have the least stringent listing requirements and the least stringent regulatory environment from an investor protection perspective. I'd place money on a lottery ticket, a long shot at the track or flush it down the toilet before expecting to get any return of capital whatsoever from a purchase there. BWDIK, Ian

To: fred hayes who wrote (12209)	7/2/2004 11:13:14 PM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 52153

Fred, Well tetrodoxin is at very least plausible as a treatment for chronic pain. There's a lot of focus on sodium channels as a key factor in chronic pain, although more effort seems focused on the subset of these that are tetrodoxin resistant. But there are some indications that tetrodoxin susceptible sodium channels are also implicated (see abstract at end). Biotech Jim would likely be the best person to comment on the science. The obvious objection to tetrodoxin is of course that it's lethal in tiny quantities - it's about 10,000 times more toxic than cyanide. So the key question is whether there is any therapeutic window at all between an effective dose and a lethal dose. If it worked, it wouldn't be the first naturally occurring very lethal substance that has found a medical use - botulinum toxin is another good example. I generally have a very negative reaction to penny biotechs - it's hard enough developing a drug with $250m in the bank, let alone with $13m which is what they seem to have had at the end of December 2003. But taking a quick look at this, it doesn't seem to be a scam. It looks pretty promotional, but that's par for the course for a penny biotech. They do have a European partner, which does reduce the risk some. Bottom line after a very quick look - not someplace I'd put money personally, but perhaps not unreasonable for someone looking to play biotech roulette. Here's the abstract I mentioned: Pain. 2004 Apr;108(3):237-47. Related Articles,Links Changes in the expression of tetrodotoxin-sensitive sodium channels within dorsal root ganglia neurons in inflammatory pain. Black JA, Liu S, Tanaka M, Cummins TR, Waxman SG. Department of Neurology and Paralyzes Veterans of America, Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association Neuroscience Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven CT 06510, USA. joel.black@yale.edu Nociceptive neurons within dorsal root ganglia (DRG) express multiple voltage-gated sodium channels, of which the tetrodotoxin-resistant (TTX-R) channel Na(v)1.8 has been suggested to play a major role in inflammatory pain. Previous work has shown that acute administration of inflammatory mediators, including prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), serotonin, and adenosine, modulates TTX-R current in DRG neurons, producing increased current amplitude and a hyperpolarizing shift of its activation curve. In addition, 4 days following injection of carrageenan into the hind paw, an established model of inflammatory pain, Na(v)1.8 mRNA and slowly-inactivating TTX-R current are increased in DRG neurons projecting to the affected paw. In the present study, the expression of sodium channels Na(v)1.1-Na(v)1.9 in small (< or = 25 micromdiameter) DRG neurons was examined with in situ hybridization, immunocytochemistry, Western blot and whole-cell patch-clamp methods following carrageenan injection into the peripheral projection fields of these cells. The results demonstrate that, following carrageenan injection, there is increased expression of TTX-S channels Na(v)1.3 and Na(v)1.7 and a parallel increase in TTX-S currents. The previously reported upregulation of Na(v)1.8 and slowly-inactivating TTX-R current is not accompanied by upregulation of mRNA or protein for Na(v)1.9, an additional TTX-R channel that is expressed in some DRG neurons. These observations demonstrate that chronic inflammation results in an upregulation in the expression of both TTX-S and TTX-R sodium channels, and suggest that TTX-S sodium channels may also contribute, at least in part, to pain associated with inflammation. Peter

To: fred hayes who wrote (12209)	7/3/2004 12:45:23 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Fred: Esteve is an established and respected pharma. Spain produces some excellent scientists, and pharma there is IMO well worth watching for a runner. You can tell your friend that Esteve, as a partner, is not a stain. Rick

To: fred hayes who wrote (12209)	8/13/2004 5:26:24 PM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 52153

Another interesting TSX Venture exchange company is Chondrogene (Ticker: CDG). Caught part of an interview with its CEO on ROBtv a couple days ago. If anyone's interested its filings may be found at sedar.com (Canada's equivalent to Edgar). First, I firmly believe that any Vancouver listed company is more likely to be a scam than just a risky speculation. This one is probably no different. What caught my attention is a research collaboration with PFE. After minimal due diligence, (reading this year's news releases and the last annual report), I suspect my first reaction was probably the right one. They're using blood based biomarkers to allow early detection of disease. Osteoarthritis in the PFE collaboration. However it seems that they get paid for achieving the milestones and there's no indication in anything that I've seen that there may be a continuing revenue stream if good things stem from the research done. In the notes to their financial statement, the amount of self dealing / related party transactions seems rather large for a company of its size. The amount of dilution is steady or increasing with the company hoping to price and place another 4.5M shares above the current market price this month. In a nutshell, I think this is probably a waste of time and money. If anyone's bored this weekend and can offer a differing view, it would be nice to be wrong... Ian. +++++++++++++++++== Recent releases. ++++++++++++++= TORONTO, Aug. 12 /CNW/ - ChondroGene Limited (TSX Venture: CDG) announced today that the paper entitled "Genetic Markers: Progress and Potential for Cardiovascular Disease" has been published in a recent Supplement to Circulation. The Supplement entitled "Markers of Malign Across the Cardiovascular Continuum: Interpretation and Application" is focussed on advancements and applications of new cardiovascular biomarkers and techniques. Dr. C.C. Liew, Chief Scientific Officer of ChondroGene, was co-section editor of the Genetic Markers portion of the Supplement and a lead author of the paper. The paper reviews the state-of-the-art, as well as recent advancements, in the area of genetic markers for detecting, staging and monitoring cardiovascular diseases and conditions. The paper looks at the various approaches to biomarkers, including ChondroGene's gene expression profiling methods. ChondroGene has generated both tissue-specific gene expression data and blood-based gene expression data, based on its Sentinel Principle. The Company is currently evaluating the scientific and commercial opportunities for its technology in this area. "Encouraging advances have been made in the area of protein biomarkers for cardiovascular disease during the past five years," stated Dr. C.C. Liew, CSO of ChondroGene. "Our own work in blood-based biomarkers in this area has been very promising. We have conducted preliminary studies in congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathies, hypertension, coronary artery disease, hyperlipidemia and Chagas' disease; all of which demonstrated strong supporting evidence for disease discrimination using our blood-based biomarker approach." [snip] ============================ TORONTO, Aug. 3 /CNW/ - ChondroGene Limited (TSX Venture: CDG) announced today that its paper entitled "First Comprehensive Mapping of Cartilage Transcripts to the Human Genome" has been published in Genomics. The article is currently available online at sciencedirect.com and will be published in an upcoming issue of the print journal. The paper presents the first comprehensive transcriptome-to-genome mapping for human cartilage. ChondroGene used functional genomics methods and its unique human cartilage bank to catalogue the estimated 13,000 to 16,000 genes expressed in cartilage tissue that ranged from developing cartilage to normal adult cartilage, to various stages of osteoarthritic cartilage that spanned asymptomatic early stage osteoarthritis (OA) to late stage OA in joint replacement patients. Mapping the cartilage-expressed genes to the human genome revealed a higher level of organization than expected and resulted in the definition of numerous "hotspot" chromosome regions containing clusters of cartilage-expressed genes. ChondroGene applied this information to construct its ChondroChip(TM), a 15,000 element cDNA-based microarray, which the Company developed for use in its osteoarthritis R&D programs. ChondroGene is currently in the process of using this information to define and develop a blood-based osteoarthritis assay that can be used to detect early stage OA, as well as stage the progression of the disease. This assay is expected to be of use to pharmaceutical companies in their OA drug development programs to help them identify novel drug targets, select patients for clinical trials and monitor the effects of new disease modifying OA drugs. Once new disease modifying OA drugs are developed, the assay will be useful in identifying early-stage, asymptomatic patients for treatment. The Company expects to have prototype assays available in the second half of 2005. "This is a landmark paper that describes the first comprehensive mapping of human cartilage specific genes," stated K. Wayne Marshall, President and CEO of ChondroGene. "These results are a culmination of the initial research we have undertaken in osteoarthritis. This information has allowed us to enter into a research collaboration with Pfizer to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for osteoarthritis, and has placed ChondroGene at the forefront of OA research." [snip] =========================================== ChondroGene announces private placement 18:38 EDT Tuesday, August 10, 2004 /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO ANY UNITED STATES NEWS OR WIRE SERVICE OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/ TORONTO, Aug. 10 /CNW/ - ChondroGene Limited (TSX-V: CDG) reported today that it intends to raise up to US$4,500,000 by way of a brokered private placement. The Company has engaged a financial advisor in New York to raise up to US$4,500,000, on a best efforts basis, by offering up to 4,736,842 common shares at a price of US$0.95 per share. The Company has agreed to compensate such advisor with a fee of 6% on the gross proceeds raised by such advisor plus a broker warrant entitling such advisor to purchase that number of common shares equal to 6% of the number of shares sold through such advisor for a period of 24 months from completion of the private placement at a price of US$0.95 per share. The private placement is expected to close on or about August 20, 2004 and is subject to regulatory approval.