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Biotech / Medical : Metabasis Therapeutics (MBRX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tnsaf who wrote (4)	6/13/2005 3:25:02 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 66

>>NEW YORK (AP) -- Drug developer Metabasis Therapeutics Inc. said Monday that a preliminary review suggests its experimental diabetes drug was not the cause of two patients' serious illnesses, and said it will resume development of the therapy. In March, Metabasis and its partner, Sankyo Co. of Japan, stopped three studies involving the CS-917 drug after two patients in one trial contracted lactic acidosis, or dangerous levels of lactic acid in the blood. However, the patients who became sick were both in a trial that was testing the interaction of CS-917 with another diabetes drug called metformin, which can elevate lactic acid levels. "What we found in these two patients was that their metformin levels were high starting out relative to others in the study," said Paul K. Laikind, Metabasis' chairman, president and chief executive. "That creates a high likelihood that the lactic acidosis was related to the elevated metformin levels, not CS-917." Metabasis shares rose 30 cents, or 11 percent, to $3.05 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq. The company's shares have hovered around $3 since plummeting more than 40 percent following the decision to halt the trials in mid-March. CS-917 works by blocking a liver pathway that appears to be involved in the overproduction of glucose by patients with Type 2 diabetes. The company said its review of the incidents is ongoing, but that it will proceed with plans to study the drug as a stand-alone therapy and as a combination treatment with drugs other than metformin. "We've never seen lactic acidosis or any such adverse events in any trial where we've administered our drug alone," Laikind said. San Diego-based Metabasis said decisions about the timing of future development are still being discussed and will be subject to final approval by Sankyo, which runs the trials for the drug.<< Well, it'll be interesting to see how fast Sankyo acts to restart. I'm figuring they lost about six to nine months, but didn't burn much on 917, either. If that's the case, things don't look so bad, and the chart suggests that there may be more upside: finance.yahoo.com Cheers, Tuck