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

To: bob smith who wrote (11975)	12/2/1997 3:29:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

bob, I'm still looking for those three articles. Here's what the Fiancial Times had to say about Rezulin. Maybe with diabetes in the news, the Ligand articles will come out: Drug recall: Warner-Lambert and Sankyo shares fall TUESDAY DECEMBER 2 1997 By Daniel Green and Paul Abrahams in Tokyo Shares in Warner-Lambert, the US drug company, and Sankyo of Japan fell sharply yesterday when Glaxo Wellcome of the UK withdrew a new diabetes drug from the market following reports of liver problems in patients. Warner-Lambert has US marketing rights for the drug and sells it as Rezulin. Sankyo invented it, under the chemical name troglitazone. Warner Lambert shares had fallen $25 7/8 to $114 3/8 by mid-session in New York. Sankyo shares fell 20 to 4050 on an otherwise good market day. Glaxo shares were up by 40p to 1340p in a rising market but failed to make up the fall they suffered on Friday for reasons relating to the new stock trading system in London. Glaxo said it withdrew the drug, which it had been selling as Romozin since October 11, because it needed time "to evaluate further the safety profile of troglitazone". But Warner-Lambert, which has been selling it since April, said it would not withdraw it, citing US Food and Drug Administration figures showing about 150 "adverse events" and three deaths out of 800,000 people treated. The FDA, which oversees the US drugs markets, said doctors should increase monitoring of patients, and said the potential for liver damage should be more prominently shown on packaging. Last month both Glaxo and Warner wrote to doctors following early reports of liver problems among a small number of patients. One senior industry figure said it was commercially easier for Glaxo to withdraw the drug because, although important, Rezulin was not vital to its prosperity. However, it held out the prospect of transforming the fortunes of Warner Lambert and Sankyo. Stuart Adkins, pharmaceuticals analyst at Lehman Brothers, said: "Troglitazone is worth one per cent of the value of Glaxo's share price, according to our net present value model, whereas for Warner Lambert it is about eight per cent." Mitsuo Ohmi, pharmaceuticals analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, had expected the drug, known in Japan as Noscal, to become Sankyo's second most important medicine, generating sales and royalties of 60bn ($468m) by 2000. That would have represented about 10 per cent of the group's pharmaceuticals turnover. "Our assumption is that sales will continue in the US and Japan, but there is undoubtedly a risk that it will be withdrawn. It is very strange that Glaxo-Wellcome has pulled the drug while Sankyo and Warner-Lambert continue to market it," said Mr Ohmi. He estimated the drug would have had US sales of $680m this year. Troglitazone works by making the body more sensitive to insulin that is already present, rather than artificially boosting levels of the hormone.