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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lynn C. Hutton who wrote (3640)	12/14/1997 8:52:00 AM
From: Musa Goksel Bulat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23519

Lynn, They increased the production to full rate in summer to smooth out demand problem during equipment removal. Since they ship whatever they make to wholesalers, most of these products were sold in Q3 creating excess inventory ( 30 days to 45 days). Now wholesalers have to sell their inventory. But my understanding is wholesalers are still reordering since they experienced supply problems in the past. I think management miscalculated Wall Streets' response to such a move. WS looks at sequential sales and profit growth. If VVUS were to keep some of the products they produced in Q3 and ship them in Q4 it would have been much better for everyone. They also said that at this point they have to pursue add campaigns to increase first time uses. They also said that distributors don't have enough inventory to supply if they launch a mojor add campaign. (45 days is not enough )

To: Lynn C. Hutton who wrote (3640)	12/14/1997 9:45:00 PM
From: James Baker	Respond to of 23519

Lynn, I think that the sad truth is that the management responses have be so vague that we outside stockholders just don't know the answers to you very good questions about production - past, present and future. We own the company and we certainly have a right to clear information about what is going on. I hope that your friend can shed some much needed light on Vivus for us. I bet he will be unable or reluctant to say very much however. At least encourage him to go back to the company with a "Hey, shareholders want to know...." comment. What aspect of the compnay is your friend involved in? Jim