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Biotech / Medical : Eli Lilly -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Andrew Q. Viet who wrote (57)12/13/1997 6:15:00 PM
From: Henry Niman  Respond to of 643
 
Here's a report on the LGND/LLY deal. It indicates that the Phase II US
monotherapy trial would begin in the second half of next year and combination
trials would begin in 1999:

10/27/97  F-D-C Reports - "The Pink Sheet", page 9, www.fdcreports.com

LILLY LOOKS TO LIGAND TARGRETIN AS ENTRY TO ORAL
ANTIDIABETIC MARKET;
ZYPREXA ANTIPSYCHOTIC SALES IN FIRST YEAR ON MARKET
TOTAL $550 MIL.:
PCS SALES GAIN 41%

Lilly is gearing up to expand from its insulin franchise into the oral diabetes
therapy market
through an alliance with Ligand.

The deal gives Lilly rights to Ligand's Targretin, a retinoid X receptor agonist, for
type 2
diabetes indications. European Phase 11 trials in 40-50 patients began in March;
Lilly will
conduct U.S. Phase 11 studies, which Ligand expects will commence in the
second half of 1998.

The companies have plans to study Targretin in combination with
thiazolidinediones (a
class represented on the U.S. market by Warner-Lambert's Rezulin) and with
insulin,
as well as for monotherapy. Ligand estimated that combination trials would not
start
until 1999.

Lilly also gains rights to two preclinical second generation oral antidiabetic
compounds. The
preclinical compounds, ALRT268 and ALRT324, were developed under the
Allergan Ligand
Retinoid Therapeutics joint venture, which Ligand recently announced it would
buy back. As
part of the ALRT buyback, Allergan will receive royalties on Targretin sales
("The Pink Sheet"
Oct. 6, T&G-15). Lilly has a collaboration with Autoimmune for a diabetes
product based on
Autoimmune's oral tolerance technology; however, clinical trial setbacks for
Autoimmune's first
two products have cast doubt on the potential of the approach.

Lilly is strong in the field of insulin-dependent diabetes, where it markets the
Humulin line of
human insulin and the insulin analog Humalog. The Ligand deal would leverage
Lilly's diabetes
marketing experience as uptake of newer insulin-sparing oral antidiabetics
depresses the market
for insulin. Bristol-Myers Squibb's leading branded NIDDM product,
Glucophage, saw a sales
increase of 82% to $167 milt for the third quarter (see preceding story). Lilly
had a diabetes
sales force of 115 reps as of May, Scott-Levin data show.



To: Andrew Q. Viet who wrote (57)1/10/1998 12:13:00 PM
From: Henry Niman  Respond to of 643
 
I've added a few more news sites to Ligand Links
home.att.net
Of interest, the news at the NASDAQ site includes a 14 minute audio as well as a video of CEO Robinson at Robertson Stephens discussing the LLY deal and LGND's profitability.



To: Andrew Q. Viet who wrote (57)1/17/1998 10:07:00 PM
From: Henry Niman  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 643
 
Today's NY Times has a nice article on new treatments for type II
diabetes:
nytimes.com
Included are a couple of paragraphs on Targretin. I still added
the link to my Diabetes page:
home.att.net
and it is linked to the front end of Links to Ligand (which has many links, including reviews on Rexinoids like Targretin).
The front end is at home.att.net