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

To: Andrew H who wrote (13195)	1/10/1998 9:03:00 PM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 32384

Henry, its very difficult getting through on SI.>> Is everyone having the same problem? I can't even get to the home page most of the time.

To: Andrew H who wrote (13195)	1/10/1998 9:41:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Andy, Yes ALRT268, LG1268, and LGD1268 are the same compound. It has been described as the most potent rexinoid. One of the problems LGND has is still gross underfunding. A breast cancer trial would be expensive and a Phase I with just Targretin would not be necessary (but a combo with Targretin and Tamoxifen probably would require a Phase I, although I think that one has already begun, probably by a government sponsored program). The government might underwrite a prevention trial (like it did for the halted Tamoxifen trial), but I suspect that at a minimum, Targretin would have to already be approved for something (CTCL or possibly for Breast cancer as monotherapy).

To: Andrew H who wrote (13195)	1/13/1998 4:37:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 32384

Andy, I just got off the phone with Bernie, and you will be happy to hear that the results of Targretin treatment of advanced breast cancer are very encouraging and LGND is moving full speed ahead for that indication. Targretin is really proving to be a "wonder drug" as the Motley Fool noted in 1996. In addition to the obvious metabolic disease applications, Targretin is also doing well against major cancer killers like prostate, lung, and ovarian cancer. Robinson expects approval for oral treatment CTCL in 1999, but expects off-label cancer use to be "significant". Targretin may also have psoriasis applications, so it should be a real money maker in the not too distant future. In cancer, LGND is looking for annual retinoid sales in the $100 to $200 million range, which would go to $500 million if the larger market targets continue to show the same success level seen in the interim analysis. DR indicated that LGND and partners would file 5-7 INDs this year (and 6 of the 7 INDs target Billion dollar markets). Bernie attended LLY's presentation yesterday, and it looks like they are jumping into Rexinoids with both feet. Although they have partnership agreements with 10 Biotechs, yesterday they only talked about two (MLNM was the other one). LLY is moving forward aggressively in the areas of obesity, dislipidemia, and cardiovascular indications, in addition to type II diabetes. Revenues for KS and CTCL were in the same ballpark as reported by Jesse Eisinger. LGND expect to hire a sales force after approval (16 salespersons and 2 managers in the US and the same for Europe). LGND now has almost 400 employees. SBH extended their alliance with LGND for 2 more years. They are targetting oral compounds for EPO and GCSF. DR expects STATs products on the market by 2005 (ahead of Robertson Stephens projections, which I thought were conservative). In the STATs area, LGND is also targetting leptin and thrombopoetin. If the leptin deal isn't done this month, LGND expects to quickly negotiate a deal with someone else. They are holding firm to their position with this extremely slow pharma. In the agreement area, LGND also expects to announce "soon" a new partner for the GLYC compounds that were being developed by Sankyo. All in all there are many major money areas for LGND, and cash will come sooner than later (DR is more confident than ever about profitability in 1999). van den Broeck introduced LGND by saying that the was a debate within the industry as to whether platforms or products were most important, and LGND had both.