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Biotech / Medical : MEDX ... anybody following? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: keokalani'nui who wrote (917)	11/15/2004 5:55:22 PM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2240

Arius - It appears to be an interesting story. They seem to prefer foreign (i.e. non-US) partners. And their approach seems to be just the opposite of the conventional wisdom's. Instead of having targets and wondering what antibodies that might stick, they have a lot of antibodies and are looking for useful targets (sort of). I don't think there is anything untoward with their strategy. They just happen to be overflowing with antibodies. Surely, they must fit somewhere. Or they wouldn't be there in the first place, so to say. If you look at the two mAb-companies I have been following, i.e. Abgenix and Medarex, it is clear that they have not themselves had any or a very limited capacity to find promising targets. Instead they have mined the market for these. Abgenix primarily by entering into a couple of high throughput deals with Curagen and Lexicon. Medarex by entering into ventures with a myriad of minor genomic companies. Abgenix lost their way while underway, as they for some strange reason got the idea that they had to build this manufacturing plant too. Not the brightest of business strategies, I am afraid. Ariad appears (after having looked through their website for five minutes) to have a limited capacity to do anything but produce antibodies. Everything else will be dependant on partnering or licensing. I guess this means that there were some bright guys with some good ideas, but not enough money to build the all-encompassing development company. As always it will be the biology that matters most. If they are lucky to strike a mother lode in terms of biologic manipulation possibilities they could well do very well. If else, then not. They have a surprisingly high market cap, though. So, I guess I missed some vital aspect of their operations. I saw that they plan to use Cuban technology to humanize their wild antibodies. Does this carry any political risks? Erik PS. It is getting late here. The reason for my less than serious approach. But still - the targets they are able to extract out of their partnerships will almost be the only thing that matters in the end. That they are using Cuban humanizing methods will probably not be terribly important, if at all.