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Biotech / Medical : Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc (KOSP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Briley who wrote (27)	11/12/1997 10:07:00 PM
From: Tom D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 118

The beating of earnings estimates was irrelevant. The make or break issue is sales of Niaspan. Apparently nobody cares if KOSP was able to control costs better than expected to produce a smaller loss. Niaspan is a clinically useful drug which is being sold at a reasonable price. Ultimately (in one or two years) sales will be quite good. Once patients get stabilized on it, they will stay on it for the forseeable future. The rampup in sales will be slower that the street expects (duh!). The key thing is that the slow sales rampup is not because of any problems with the medication. It is due to: 1) It takes a few months and some effort on the doctors' and patients' part to get patients established on the drug. 2) The promotional campaign that I have witnessed is NOT COMPETITIVE with the campaigns supporting "statins". 3) HMO's will take up to 6 more months to start covering the costs of the medication in their formularies. Best Regards, Tom D