Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Agouron Pharmaceuticals (AGPH) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sam who wrote (4065)	4/16/1998 10:23:00 AM
From: sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6136

Today is Dean Witter's turn to take a turn at bashing AGPH. And their doing a bang-up job. Down a couple more points. If I didn't know any better, I'd think AGPH missed their number and warned.

To: sam who wrote (4065)	4/16/1998 10:25:00 AM
From: margie	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6136

Thanks Sam, guess we aren't the only ones who see value in Agouron. And we all know one of the reasons Merck disappointed. The strong dollar could not be the only reason, as it was just as strong last quarter. Losing market share to Viracept must be affecting their bottom line some. It is options expiration this Friday, so that may be part of the reason for this drop, and I was wondering earlier this week whether it would close this Friday at 35, 37 1/2 or 40, but I really could not see a close of 35 or so. I don't know how the rest of you feel, but to quote from an old movie, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." It seems like the only way we will get rid of those #$%@# shorts is either by taking possession of our certificates if one is long or by requesting that the shares be placed on the cash side of a margin account. Shares in a non-marginable account or on the cash side in a margin account cannot be used for shorting. It doesn't cost anything to put them on the cash side, just a phone call to the broker. It costs $15 at Eschwab to request certificates and takes 7-10 days for delivery. They do need to be placed back in the account in order to be sold. And it won't work if I'm the only one who does it. Even if it doesn't work, at least I know they won't be using my shares. Agouron does not deserve this kind of treatment nor do we as shareholders. It doesn't look like any amount of good news will help. I saw Peter Johnson on CNBC. I thought that was a low blow when the reporter asked if any strategic alliances were expected "or does Agouron not get along with the other kids on the block?' Johnson handled that question with a lot of dignity. He smiled and said "Big companies like small companies make hard decisions about where to put their resources. The first time Agouron had a partner withdraw was when Eli Lilly decided that Viracept was not as promising as it should be and they walked away from that. So sometimes big companies do make mistakes and we have great faith in our ability to analyze the most promising products in our pipeline and to put the resources there." When asked how Agouron was going to combat big companies like Merck, Johnson answered that that it was possible to compete in the HIV protease inhibitor area because of the strength of their product, and this is one area of medicine where it is possible for a strong product like Viracept to be competitive. The reporter commented that it looked like Viracept was moving to BID as opposed to TID and Johnson mentioned the strong results of the clinical studies to date, showing BID was at least as effective as TID. Johnson announced that AG3340 has begun pivotal Phase III studies for non-small cell lung cancer, and non hormonal prostate cancer, and said that Agouron has 15 drugs at various stages of development, all in response to a question concerning analyst's concerns of a 0ne-drug company. The rhinovirus candidate has been selected and will begin Phase I by the end of the year. They are also looking into licensing or a collaboration in order to bring another product into the current sales force, in either the HIV area or anti-cancer, with a product that differentiates itself from existing products. Paine Weber just issued a 4 page report repeating the same bullish position they have had, as well as another report showing strong monthly scrips. And Agouron's market share is up close to 5% for the month of March, and the combined Invirase/fortovase market share is down slightly. And I don't feel like wasting my time trying to post the figures here, it takes too long. And it doesn't make a difference. They are better, trust me :-) Apparently Bear Stearns is trying to raise the estimates so that Agouron cannot beat the estimates (Sam said PW told him that). Bear Stearns analyst David Molowa has a long-standing "attitude" to Agouron: Check out this post from over a year ago. If the link doesn't work, it's post #460 on the Agouron thread from MARCH 14, 1997. Message 991422 Somewhat off topic For those who didn't know, Biochem Pharm, the maker of AZT and 3TC, in collaboration with Glaxo, had two plants in Montreal that were bombed in November 1997; the reasons were unknown at the time. This past Friday police in Montreal uncovered evidence of massive buying of put options and arrests are imminent. Stock fraud is suspected, as "whoever it was" hoped to profit from a decrease in the stock price, which barely happened. Pretty sad, what some resort to. Re: Bombs: A new way to make money in options. Post#10616 on the Applied Magnetics Thread theglobeandmail.com I told this story to an aquaintance who runs a hedge fund in NY. When he heard, he said "YES" and pumped the air like Tiger Woods does when he makes a great shot. What kind of people plant bombs to manipulate stock prices, let along plant bombs in a drug company that produces a drug for AIDS, or what kind of people think it's cool? There are a lot of sick folks in this world. I don't think that agph shorts really have a reason besides their belief that a small company like Agouron cannot compete against big pharmaceutical giants like Merck etc or they don't' follow HIV treatment and research enough to know that Viracept will not be replaced anytime soon. I guess we can be thankful for one thing; that they haven't resorted to bombs. "It doesn't take much to see that 'our'problems don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."