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Biotech / Medical : MGI Pharma MOGN New patents, anti cancer -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Biomaven who wrote (676)	2/17/1998 12:54:00 PM
From: Russian Bear	Respond to of 1826

Peter, Your point is well taken. However, perhaps MGI can use initial Sjogren's sales of Salagen to ramp up their internal marketing efforts, and so avoid splitting the profits with a partner. To that end, it is my understanding (I read this somewhere, but do not remember where) that it has recently become easier to advertise pharmaceutical products directly to potential end-users (patients) via television, and other media. (I can, personally, offer anecdotal confirmation: I have been seeing quite a few [many, many more than I saw previously] such advertisements, and I don't even watch very much television!) One million potential users, at $1,000/year, on a high margin product, makes for a decent bit of money, potentially. Even if only 5% of the sufferers were to be reached, it would still amount to some $50 million in revenue (for a $70 million market cap company.) Furthermore, I understand that the Sjogren's market is fairly homogenous (typically, middle aged women, isn't that right?) I imagine that it would not take a tremendous amount of money to do some properly targeted educational advertisement, aimed at this segment of the population. With any luck, they could afford to do such "awareness" advertisement (using initial sales revenue,) and still have plenty left over for MGI-114 development (if they get a European partner soon; perhaps not otherwise.) Just a thought. I could be wrong about this. Anyway, it is nice to have FDA approval. Whichever way Blitzer decides to go, I have no reason to doubt that he will make the optimal choice. Regards, RB

To: Biomaven who wrote (676)	2/17/1998 1:20:00 PM
From: David Cathcart	Respond to of 1826

Peter, It is nice to see confirmation of the news that was expected. Now we will finally see how big the Sjogren's market is, but it will take time. Since they will not begin to actively promote Salagen for Sjogren's until April 1st, there will be no significant positive impact on the present quarter. In fact, we have to expect ramp up costs to effect the bottom line for this quarter. Blitzer has repeatedly said that their sales force, presently at 22 and soon-to-be 24 strong, is one of their greatest assets. I have no idea whether this is a sufficient size to address the newly enlarged Salagen market. Can anyone help? I remain disappointed in the lack of a MGI Pharma web-site. These things are cheep to do and now practically any kid out of college can create one. With the new approval, the potential would exist for links to the two Sjogren's web-sites mentioned in the news release. This would be an extremely cost effective way to reach the end consumer and create product awareness. Bottom line, this is great news. For me, it's one down and two to go (phase II and the European deal). To borrow and paraphrase a line from RDB, with this new approval, it is easier than ever to drool over the idea of shrinking tumors. David