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Biotech / Medical : AMLN (DIABETES DRUGS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Toby Zidle who wrote (1288)	4/2/1998 12:54:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 2173

Here's what the San Diego Union-Tribune had to say about the management shakeup and AMLN's financial condition: Changes at the top for two area companies \| Amylin shake-up: Chairman steps down, CEO is leaving Thomas Kupper STAFF WRITER 27-Mar-1998 Friday Struggling biotech Amylin Pharmaceuticals announced an executive shake-up yesterday that includes the resignation of local biotech pioneer Howard "Ted" Greene Jr. as chairman. The San Diego company, which recently decided to cut a quarter of its staff after losing an important partnership, also said chief executive Richard Haugen will leave after less than two years in the job. The moves come as Amylin tries to rebuild momentum behind its diabetes drug pramlintide after this month's split with partner Johnson & Johnson, which had been covering half the development costs. The company said its new leader will be Joseph C. Cook Jr., a former Eli Lilly and Co. vice president, who will consolidate control in the combined role of chairman and chief executive. Cook, an Amylin director since 1994, faces the challenge of finding another partner or otherwise preventing the company from collapsing under the high costs of testing pramlintide. Amylin had $52.7 million in cash at year-end, but the company lost $54.6 million last year despite Johnson & Johnson's help. It has no products, and pramlintide could be at least a year from the market. Biotech analyst Christopher Kim of Van Kasper & Co. in Los Angeles said that on its current course Amylin could run out of money by the third quarter of this year. But he added that while CEOs often take the fall when trouble strikes, Amylin's fate rests more with the effectiveness of the drug than with the company's executives. "The question that still remains is whether they have a product and whether it works," Kim said. "Changing management is not really changing the issue at hand." Amylin shares, which have lost 80 percent of their value in little over a year, closed at $2.68 3/4 , up 3 1/8 cents. The company's problems started last summer, when it reported that studies did not show significant benefits over 12 months in adult-onset diabetics. Results were better for juvenile-onset cases, but there are far fewer of those patients. Since Johnson & Johnson's departure, Amylin has announced plans to fire a quarter of its 262 employees and to restructure the pramlintide program to try to get the drug on the market in Europe next year. Data from American trials aren't expected to be ready for the Food and Drug Administration until 2000. Greene, who remains on Amylin's board, has been among the leaders of San Diego biotech for two decades, first as head of the biotech Hybritech and then at Amylin. He stepped aside as chief executive at Amylin in July 1996, when the company brought in Haugen from Allergan Inc., an Irvine drug company where he had been chief operating officer. An Amylin spokesman did not say what prompted Haugen's departure, other than a desire by the board to consolidate power under one person. Haugen will continue to work with Amylin as a consultant. Cook, 56, worked at Eli Lilly, the Indianapolis drug powerhouse, for 28 years before retiring in 1993 as group vice president for global manufacturing, engineering and quality control. In addition to Amylin, Cook sits on the boards of three other companies, including San Diego's Dura Pharmaceuticals.

To: Toby Zidle who wrote (1288)	4/2/1998 1:49:00 PM
From: Toby Zidle	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2173

The financial situation sounds like, indeed, it could become critical here. Like looming bankruptcy. That's why I'd have to disagree with analyst Kim's quoted assessment. "The question that still remains is whether they have a product and whether it works," Kim said. "Changing management is not really changing the issue at hand." Actually, changing management is exactly the issue. The answer is in finding strategic direction: whether to issue debt or equity, where to find key partners, how to approach marketing in Europe, finding an optimum test strategy to satisfy the FDA. It's management, not product, that supplies the answer. As a shareholder, I'd like to say I'm optimistic for the company's future and dispense the appropriate soothing platitudes. But I'm not. I'm just planning to wait and see. [This message was intended as a reply to Henry Niman, message #1289.]