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

To: Seni Sangrujee who wrote (118)	4/6/1998 4:58:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 642

Tamoxifen data lifts Lilly on Evista hopes Monday April 6, 4:10 pm Eastern Time CHICAGO, April 6 (Reuters) - Shares in Eli Lilly & Co. rose 2-7/16 to 61 in late New York Stock Exchange trading Monday as new data on the breast cancer drug tamoxifen boosted hopes for Lilly's chemically similar osteoporosis drug, Evista. Tamoxifen, sold under the brand name Nolvadex by Zeneca Group Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ZEN.L), cut breast cancer cases by 45 percent in women at high risk for the disease, researchers said Monday. The National Institutes of Health said it stopped a study with tamoxifen more than a year early because of the dramatic findings. It said women who took dummy pills as part of the trial would be given a chance to take tamoxifen instead. Like tamoxifen, Indianapolis-based Lilly's Evista is classed as a selective estrogen receptor modulator -- drugs that change the actions of estrogen in the female body. ''Evista is a more advanced SERM,'' said Neil Sweig, drug industry analyst at Southeast Research Partners. Analysts cautioned that data favorable to tamoxifen may not apply to Evista, but added that Lilly stock was likely up anyway because it has been battered lately on market disappointment with Evista's launch late last year. ''Lilly has been very depressed...So part of it is a bounce from the bottom,'' Sweig said. Lilly's stock has been hit in recent weeks by prescription data for Evista, known generically as raloxifene and launched amid high expectations. As weekly prescription data have come in, industry analysts have cut sales forecasts for the drug. At a mid-May American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, Lilly said it expected additional data to be presented on Evista and breast cancer. New prescriptions for Evista fell in the week ended March 27 -- the first dip in the closely watched figure since the drug's launch, said health care data firm IMS America. New prescriptions written for the drug totalled 8,396 on the week, down from 8,451 in the preceding week, IMS said. Total prescriptions, which include refills, were 12,093 for the week ended March 27, up from 11,707 in the preceding week ended March 20, IMS said. biz.yahoo.com