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Biotech / Medical : Biochem Pharma (BCHE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Goldstein who wrote (232)	2/6/1998 8:18:00 AM
From: johne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 783

Steve, I believe the short interest brought the stock price down. Going from 3m to 9m and their the ones that will bring it back up.

To: Steve Goldstein who wrote (232)	2/6/1998 9:02:00 AM
From: richard	Respond to of 783

Wednesday February 4, 5:00 pm Eastern Time Glaxo /SmithKline merger to spark R&D deals By Patricia Reaney LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The proposed merger between Glaxo Wellcome Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: GLXO.L) and SmithKline Beecham Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SB.L) will spark a spate of consolidations among pharmaceutical firms, industry experts said on Wednesday. With the costs of developing a drug and getting it on the market escalating daily only the biggest companies will be able to afford to do it. The merger of the two drug giants into the world's largest pharmaceutical company could ensure that research and development is sustained in the long term and force other companies to consider similar moves to keep pace -- a move interpreted as good news for patients and consumers. ''It is probably the way things are going to go and it is a good thing for the UK pharmaceutical industry,'' Nick Garner, Imperial Cancer Research Technology (ICRT) in London, told Reuters. ''It seems to me that all the drug companies are concerned that their pipelines (of drugs in development) are not big enough to support the global administration, production and marketing effort that they have. ''There's a general feeling that there are likely to be more consolidations to merge research and development pipelines of other companies,'' Garner said. As business development manager at the ICRT, Garner must interest drug companies in funding clinical trials of technology developed by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, a leading UK research charity. It can cost upwards of $150 million to take a product from early trials to regulatory authorities and market approval. He dismissed predictions that the move will spark cutbacks in R&D and suggested it could lead to the development of more therapies that could reach the market sooner. ''It seems to me the reason they are thinking of merging is that they want to increase the number of drugs in the pipeline,'' he added. ''What they want is a smaller organisation and a larger pipeline of new products coming up,'' Garner said. ''The cost of getting a drug to the market gets bigger and bigger. Regulatory requirements are extremely stringent and it is just an enormously costly business. ''The worst possible thing that could happen would be to have a load of small companies, none of which had the resources to get anything through to final marketing, versus having a smaller number of those who can do the whole process with the cash flow and resources from existing products.'' Dr David Secher, of the R&D department at the Cancer Research Campaign, another leading UK charity research body, is also optimistic that the planned merger will offer exciting opportunities for new drugs and therapies. ''There is a certain belief that there is an economy of scale and that one company having a two billion dollar research budget, or whatever, is better than two companies each having one,'' he said. Secher also had no doubt that more mergers will follow. ''There is no doubt about that. We saw a round of that four or five years ago and I'm sure this will trigger a new one.'' Although some researchers feared the mega drug companies would invest only in multi-million dollar products and would take no interest in small drugs with a niche market, Garner said such concerns were unfounded. ''When the (huge) drug companies focus on the big opportunities, that creates opportunities at the smaller end of the market for other people,'' he said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------