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

To: Biotech Jim who wrote (17450)	3/14/1998 5:58:00 PM
From: squetch	Respond to of 32384

>>Is the future focused more on cytokine receptors than ligand-activated steroid hormone transcription factors?<< I would like to hear what you have to say Biotech Jim. I would especially like to hear your thoughts on cytokine receptors. squetch

To: Biotech Jim who wrote (17450)	3/14/1998 6:15:00 PM
From: Pseudo Biologist	Respond to of 32384

BJ, On clinicals. I believe most of the clinical development of Targretin has been done by Ligand itself. The Lilly partnership is coming at a late stage. Droloxifene is an example of a Ligand compound being developed by someone else (Pfizer). I think Ligand has significant internal expertise in clinical development. On bright stars. I did a little exercise. Went to Medline and looked for papers with "Ligand" in the Affiliation field (got 82 hits), then looked at names that appeared with some frequency, as well as names associated with the "hot" papers (Science, Nature, Cell, PNAS). Here is a list, and apparent previous affiliations for some of these: P. Lamb - old papers with Steve McNight (who recently went to Tularik) D.S. Lala - Medical College of Georgia HM. Seidel - Harvard with JR Knowles SS Tian - Cal Tech, Texas Tech -- tech guy, eh? MM. Gottardis - U. Wisconsin clinical center RA Heyman - apparently was with Ron Evans at the Salk, but these may be collaborations with Ligand -- Henry may know for sure. The list is pretty arbitrary and I am sure I am missing some of the main science stars, but take it as FWIW. PB

To: Biotech Jim who wrote (17450)	3/16/1998 8:44:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

BJ, On the preclinical front, LGND really shines. The IR work is based on Ron Evan's work. He is a National Academy Member and a (the) leader in the field of Intracellular Receptors. In 1985 he published the first sequence (on the gluccocorticoid receptor) and has been very active on RXRs and rexinoid (discovered 9-cis retinoic acid, the first non-polypeptide hormone to be discovered in 25 years). Even more remarkable is the timing. The Cell paper was published in 1992 and it looks like the NDA will be filed this month and the drug (Panretin) will be on pharmacy shelves this year. The fast time line is a tribute to the entire LGND team. They have drawn seasoned veterans from the pharmaceutical industry. Their 1995 Annual report indicated that senior management had brought over 40 multi-million dollar drugs to market. On the science front, LGND has a powerful list of consultants and Scientific Advisory Board members. Bert O'Malley is a collaborator from Baylor and has extensive experience in the steroid receptor area, including Vitamin D receptors and associated proteins. In the STATs area, LGND exclusively licensed the technology from the Rockefeller (Jim Darnell's lab) and NYU (David Levy's lab). Darnell is a (the) leader in STATs and he published some of the seminal research in 1992 when LGND licensed the technology. STATs are one of the hottest topics in basic research. The vast majority of therapeutic products developed by Biotechs use STATs. Jim Ihle of Vanderbilt is another LGND consultant who is very well published in the field. LGND's pipeline is among the best if not the best in the industry. In the 1996 Annual Report LGND listed 29 products that were in over 40 clinical trials. LGND is focused on 100 targets (75 IRs and 25 STATs) so there is no shortage of technology or drugs to develop.