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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (11386)	11/18/1997 9:00:00 PM
From: Andrew H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

FUGAZI, I was going to let Henry's response to your previous post stand as his defense, but you most recent post compels me to make a few comments. You are correct that Henry is going beyond the realm of personal opinion. He is indeed engaging in the communication of information which may be regarded as rumor, as may everything we might hear about LGND that does not come directly from the company. Personally, I think it would be a pretty sad thread if all we had to talk about were the press releases than LGND publishes. Let me respond to one of your accusations which I find objectionable and suspect was not very well thought out or articulated. >>Henry is putting out information that is not suppose to be known by the outside public. If it was, then LGND would have put out a PR stating that certain magazines/newpapers would be publishing upcoming articles about the company.<< Are you the self-appointed arbiter of what is supposed to be known by the outside public. Are you a lawyer? How familiar are you with LGND and the law to know exactly what constitutes inside information. Are we to believe that LGND publishes absolutely everything that is not inside information? I don't think so. The information about the articles could have come from the reporter writing the story or a friend the reporter spoke to. It may have had nothing to do with LGND personnel. It might have been mentioned at the Oppenheimer conference. Bottom line is that we don't know. To suggest Henry is revealing inside information is to dispute the comments he has made to the contrary that he is in possession of no such information. The question of irresponsibility is a different matter. The way I see it, Henry is communicating information to us that he believes is valid. He communicates it to us in that fashion, so we know it is not verified fact. Those who have been on the thread for a while know that often his "information" is neither exact nor timely (witness the J and J diabetes deal with LGND, the AGN buyout and his price projections). We understand that there is speculation and uncertainty involved. Rather than considering him irresponsible for communicating this information, I would suggest that we are responsible for how we receive it. More often than not, sooner or later, there are tangible elements of truth in Henry's information. One should know enough not to take rumors literally or to put money on them. Of course, this does not stop me from teasing Henry or taking him for an occasional bottle of wine when his information and projections happen to be inaccurate. Henry is the single most informed source on LGND and its products that we are ever going to have contact with here on SI. Personally I want to hear EVERYTHING he cares to offer about the company. That doesn't mean I accept it verbatim. Nor does it mean I don't question him when the "information" doesn't materialize. It does mean I will fight every attempt to silence whatever information he is willing to share with the thread.

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (11386)	11/18/1997 9:36:00 PM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 32384

To be fair Mark did qualify his statement by saying "IMO" and "usually qualifies" ;-) FWIW, BusinessWeek last year was subject of much critism and internal investigation for what appeared to be leaking of its "Inside Wall Street" column. --Tony.

To: Hippieslayer who wrote (11386)	11/18/1997 10:09:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

FUGAZI, The best source of LGND comes directly from its press releases. Next comes IR. I use both regularly and make comments. Sometimes I get E-Mail from others interested in LGND including those who go to their conferences or follow the company. I occasionally post such rumors. The upcoming articles fall into that category. I haven't seen the articles or know exactly what they say. The info is second hand and is by no means guaranteed. I believe that the source is reliable and the publications interviewed people at LGND. I expected to see the publications a few weeks ago. As far as I know, the reports will come out. That's about it. Diabetes has been in the news and a couple of recent articles on AMLN really haven't done much for its stock price (Barron's produce a blip of a day or two and the NY Times did virtually nothing). I expect quite a bit of news to come via press releases, some of which have been delayed by the delay in the ALRI call. This delay may have carried over to the three articles I was expecting. I put the information out as a subject for discussion. I don't put that much weight on the "rumors" and don't extensively follow them up (they usually come unsolicited and I'm not an investigative reporter). In the case of the publications, I think that the timing is in the hands of the individual editors.