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To: Andrew Vance who wrote (13594)	5/4/1998 7:48:00 PM
From: Tech Master	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17305

Monday May 4, 7:23 pm Eastern Time <snip> A corrected version follows. By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY - news) cautioned Monday it is far too early to guarantee the future success of a promising anti-cancer protein it is developing with EntreMed Inc (ENMD - news), angiostatin. ''The research on angiostatin is very promising but we must temper that fact with knowledge it is in very early research, and it has to overcome many more hurdles in the development process before it can become a cancer therapy,'' Bristol-Myers spokesman William Dunnett told Reuters. EntreMed stock soared about 350 percent on the news Monday. EntreMed shares took off Monday following an enthusiastic front-page New York Times article Sunday describing the promising cancer-fighting potential of angiostatin and another protein being developed by EntreMed, endostatin. EntreMed was up 41-3/16 to 53-1/4 by late afternoon on volume or more than 21 million shares. Bristol-Myers owns about 10 percent of EntreMed's stock and signed an agreement with EntreMed in 1995 for worldwide licensing and development rights to angiostatin. Shares of Bristol-Myers were up 5-1/4 to 111-7/16, besting its previous year high of 108-1/2. EntreMed has not yet decided on a partner to develop endostatin, another naturally occurring protein that works by preventing growth of blood vessels that feed tumors. Researchers have said the two proteins when administered together can eradicate any type of cancer in mice with no obvious side effects and without causing resistance to the drugs. ''We can't predict when angiostatin will be tested in man,'' Dunnett said, although EntreMed chief financial officer Nelson Campbell said Monday that his company hoped human clinical trials would begin within a year. Dunnett said Bristol-Myers was conducting its own research on the protein and financing research by EntreMed, as well as continuing research by the discoverer of both proteins, Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston. Dunnett noted that Bristol-Myers obtained rights from EntreMed in 1995 to develop a controversial older drug, thalidomide, as an anti-cancer therapy. But EntreMed reacquired commercial rights to thalidomide from Bristol-Myers in August 1997, while extending Bristol- Myers' warrants to buy additional equity in Rockville, Md.-based EntreMed. EntreMed has said thalidomide works against various forms of cancer also by interfering with angiogenesis, the process of forming blood vessels. Another company, Celgene Corp (CELG - news) of Warren, N.J., is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market thalidomide as a treatment for leprosy, under the brand name Synovir. Although now enjoying a resurgence because of its anti-angiogenic properties, thalidomide was banned in 1962 worldwide after up to 12,000 children whose mothers took the drug were born with deformities. Dunnett said in addition to its support for EntreMed's angiostatin research, Bristol-Myers is also funding EntreMed efforts to develop drugs chemically similar to thalidomide -- hoping such ''thalidomide analogs'' also have anti-angiogenic properties. Neil Sweig, a drug analyst for Southeast Research Partners, said he believed investors were overly enthusiastic Monday in bidding up shares of EntreMed and Bristol-Myers based upon ''research still in the mouse stage. ''Any product that hasn't passed the mouse stage has to be considered suspicious,'' Sweig said, noting drugs that work in mice often fail in man. ''The truth will not be known about angiostatin until it enters humans, which won't begin until the first half of 1999'' at the earliest, he said, adding the extreme jump in EntreMed shares was further evidence of a ''frothy bull market.'' <snip>