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

To: medsunman who wrote (16901)	3/9/1998 1:29:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

medsunman, I'm glad that you asked. I was just about to do an update to try to clarify. Last week Biotech Jim asked about a Ligand presentation at Lake Tahoe (conference on hematopoietic growth factors). I had not heard anything, but it became clear that they had made a presentation on the identification of a small molecule characterized under the SBH alliance. I obtained fragmentary updates and assumed that they had a small molecule that interacted with STATs associated with G-CSF (Neupogen). I soon found out that the small molecule actually interacted directly with the G-CSF receptor and it was exquisitely specific (distinguished between the mouse and human G-CSF receptor). I found this info to be extremely exciting. I soon found out that the small molecule was 500 daltons and it was obvious that such a presentation would touch off a flurry of me toos in many companies. I explained that LGND had a broad screening procedure, so that the G-CFS finding had very broad implications. I also reference a couple of Ligand patents that had just issued. I have created a new page at home.att.net I did predict that LGND would move higher today, in part because of the news about the G-CSF mimic. Some thought that my comments indicated that there would be a press release today. I found out that the mimic paper had only been submitted, so it would not be published for a month or two. However, I did expect word to spread, which would put more pressure on LGND's price. The new site indicates that that is exactly what is happening. The larger pharmas are visiting, including SBH. Now word is spreading at AMGN. There is nothing magic about today, but March Madness is clearly an event of import to LGND and its shareholders.