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

To: Henry Niman who wrote (14010)	1/31/1998 2:00:00 PM
From: Peter Singleton	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 32384

Henry, Just looking around in press releases I came across this on Aronex's ATRAN in APL. Any thoughts? I know little more about ARNX other than its name and that it appears to be a company in trouble (President resigned 1/9/98). Aronex Presents Preliminary Phase 2 Results of ATRAGEN(TM) At American Society of Hematology Meeting; Expands ATRAGEN(TM) Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Trial THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Aronex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNX - news) reported preliminary clinical results for its anti-cancer product, ATRAGEN(TM), in a presentation today at the American Society of Hematology 39th Annual Meeting (''ASH'') in San Diego, California. ATRAGEN is currently in a pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate its potential in inducing remission and preventing relapse in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) patients who have experienced a recurrence of the cancer. ''We believe the preliminary Phase 2 results presented at ASH confirm the ability of ATRAGEN to induce complete remissions in relapsed APL patients,'' said Geoffrey F. Cox, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Aronex Pharmaceuticals. ''Historically, after attaining a complete remission, patients with APL will remain in remission for a median of only six months. The preliminary results of the Phase 2 trial indicate that patients appear to have more durable remissions, including one patient whose remission continues through 17 months. We continue to monitor the progress of the patients.'' In the study presented at ASH, two groups of patients were evaluated to measure ATRAGEN's ability to induce remission and improve the standard six- month remission duration rate. Patients in both groups were given ATRAGEN at 90 mg/m2 every other day for 56 days or until complete remission, whichever came first. The patients in Group 1 were first relapse patients who had never received oral ATRA or had received oral ATRA over one year prior to their relapse date. In Group 1, 100% of the patients achieved complete remission. Historical data provided by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center indicates an 80-90% probability of remission using other treatments. The Group 2 patients were in first or subsequent relapse and had received oral ATRA within one year of their relapse date. One patient in Group 2 achieved complete remission, which is comparable to the historical 13% figure for APL patients. Dr. Cox stated, ''In view of the encouraging preliminary data presented at ASH, we will be aggressively evaluating ATRAGEN's potential as a treatment for additional cancers where new therapies are needed. In part as a result of this expanded program and in part as a result of a recent informal meeting with the Food and Drug Administration, Aronex Pharmaceuticals has decided to delay the filing of a New Drug Application for ATRAGEN to enable enrollment of additional patients with APL and other cancers. The Company believes these expanded clinical trials will effectively support the long-term commercialization of the product.'' Aronex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a leading biopharmaceutical company engaged in the identification and development of proprietary innovative medicines to treat cancer and life-threatening infectious diseases. Aronex currently has four products (Nyotran(TM), ATRAGEN(TM), Annamycin and Zintevir(TM)) in various stages of ongoing clinical development and a number of products in preclinical development.

To: Henry Niman who wrote (14010)	1/31/1998 7:36:00 PM
From: John O'Neill	Respond to of 32384

How about posting some of this off topic/tangential LGND material on the new "searching for biotech winners" thread. I think an open forum like this, given the high caliber of LGND thread members, would enable us to discuss the roll of other companies, and maybe pick some very promising ones. As an earlier post said, picking a "bag" of about 5 biotech companies is a winning strategy, rather than just focusing one one. Even if we're heavily weighted in LGND, why overlook other areas I ie Microcide (MCDE), is this a good company or not ?