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

To: Stuart Scolnik who wrote (73)	2/16/1998 6:57:00 PM
From: ron forgus	Respond to of 643

LLY is the largest holding in the Putnam Health and Science Fund The more research I do LLY keeps moving up in sector funds.

To: Stuart Scolnik who wrote (73)	2/17/1998 4:21:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 643

Eli Lilly whipsawed again by Evista data Tuesday February 17, 3:51 pm Eastern Time CHICAGO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Shares in drug maker Eli Lilly and Co fell 2-6/16 to 61-5/16 in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday on renewed concern among industry analysts about early sales of Evista, a new osteoporosis drug. Data on new prescriptions for the drug in the week ended February 6 were released on Tuesday, prompting another round of worry on Wall Street that Evista may not live up to the bullish sales forecasts of some analysts. ''Some of the expectations for Evista may be too large ... That is what is causing the big swings in the stock,'' said Jeffrey Kraws, analyst at Everen Securities. New prescriptions written for Evista totalled 1,534 in the week ended January 16, 3,205 in the week ended January 23, and 4,847 in the week ended January 30, said IMS America, a healthcare information company. Exact data for the week ended February 6 were not immediately available, but analysts said they continued to show Evista's early sales growth lagging behind that of Fosamax, another osteoporosis drug from Merck & Co Inc (MRK - news) that was launched in 1995 to great success. ''Folks are saying that Evista is running behind the early weeks of Fosamax ... But these are very different products,'' said Southeast Research Partners analyst Neil Sweig. Fosamax is approved for treatment of osteoporosis, while Evista is approved for the bone-thinning disease's prevention. In addition, Evista may have other effects positioning it to compete against Premarin, an estrogen replacement therapy made by American Home Products Corp (AHP - news), analysts said. "Evista is a betwixt and between drug," Sweig said. The challenge of carving a new niche in the women's health market has not stopped some analysts from setting ambitious sales forecasts for Evista of as much as $1 billion by 2000. The longer the drug's early performance continues to disappoint, the better chances are that analysts will have to cut their sales and earnings estimates, analysts said. ''There are some institutions that are pulling the trigger already,'' Sweig said, referring to the large block transactions among Tuesday's heavy volume. Lilly shares were the most heavily traded on the exchange for most of the day. A spokesman for the Indianapolis-based company declined to comment.