Media channels are choking lately with great SUGN publicity-
This Dow article yesterday-
Sugen Gains 16% As Attention Turns To Cancer-Fighting Drugs
By NANCY BEILES
Dow Jones Newswires
NEW YORK -- Sugen Inc. (SUGN) shares notched a 16% gain Monday
as a newspaper report focused attention on cancer-fighting drugs.
A Sunday New York Times article reported that Entremed Inc.'s
(ENMD) anti-angiogenesis drugs have eliminated tumors in mice. That report sent Entremed's shares skyrocketing to a 52-week high of 85.
In highlighting the research being done with anti-angiogenesis drugs, the article prompted
some investors to look to Sugen, which also has an anti-angiogenesis drug in its pipeline
- at a more advanced stage.
Anti-angiogenesis drugs stave off the growth of new blood vessels.
Researchers are hoping that this class of drugs can be used to cut off the blood supply
to a tumor and weaken it through blood attrition.
Sugen's tests of the drug on animals appear promising, with the drug successfully able to block blood vessel growth and block tumor metastasis.
The company, a spokeswoman said, has already begun to test the drug -called SU416 - on humans in a Phase I clinical trial.
The spokeswoman said preliminary results from the trial - which is
designed to test the drug's safety at different dosages - show that patients are tolerating it well.
Some of the preliminary findings will be presented later in the month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
Sugen shares were recently trading at 15 7/8, up 2 1/4, or 16.5%, on volume of 580,700 shares.
The prospect of a major development in cancer treatment has created a frenzy for companies that are working on such products.
In addition to Sugen and Entremed, Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc.
(MAGN), Boston Life Sciences (BLSI) and Imclone Systems Inc.
(IMCL) are each developing antiangiogenesis drugs. Magainin shares
recently gained 2 7/16, or 41.1%, to 8 3/8, on volume of 3.4 million;Boston Life Sciences shot up 5 3/8, or 252.9%, to 7 1/2, on volume of 12.3 million compared to normal volume of 52,800; while Imclone shares were up 1 7/8, or 21.4%, at 10 5/8.
Imclone's treatment, Chief Executive Samuel Waksal said, differs from some others being developed. In many cases, Waksal said, an
antiangiogenesis drug will try to prevent the growth of blood vessels by blocking the signal sent to blood vessel cells telling it to grow. Imclone's drug, in contrast, prevents
the cell from receiving the signal to grow; it is a receptor-blocker.
While investors appear to be betting that the success of such treatments in animals will
mean victory over cancer in humans, such a conclusion doesn't necessarily follow.
And perhaps surprisingly, executives at some of the companies developing these
treatments are providing a dose of skepticism about what success in animal tests may
mean for human cancer treatments.
Sugen Chief Executive Stephen Evans Freke warned against drawing
conclusions too early about the ability of antiangiogenesis to fight cancer in humans. "It is
wildly irresponsible," he said. "In cancer, more than any other disease, animal results are
simply not predictive of results in humans."
Imclone's Waksal agreed. "There are hundreds of things that have cured cancer in mice that have never done anything in humans," he said.
Nonetheless, medical researchers frequently experiment on mice because of a peculiarity of the late 19th-century leisure class, which often took field mice indoors
as house pets. These people - who were educated in the sciences and often had a lot of
time to explore ideas - began to selectively breed the animals, trying to affect fur color and other traits.
These amateur researchers soon turned out more than speckled fur. After inbreeding mice for 10 generations - which takes a relatively short time, since mouse gestation is 21
days - they produced a class of mice that was genetically compatible - or histocompatible - with each other, much in the way that identical twins are.
This proved to have enormous consequences for medical research. By
being able to breed mice that are genetically compatible quickly and easily, researchers can test treatments on many different mice and draw conclusions as if they had tested
just one. "You could have 1,000 mice of a certain strain, so skin testing (for example), in
one mouse has the same effect as on the other," Waksal said.
Sugen's Freke said the science underlying the antiangiogenesis treatment is sound: The
drug blocks blood vessel growth, limiting the flow of blood to a tumor, which then loses
its source of nutrition and energy. The question remains, however, whether this process
can be reproduced in humans with any degree of success, he said.
Some of those answers will come as Sugen moves further along in its testing of its antiangiogenesis drug in clinical trials.
Freke said he expects Sugen will move on to Phase II trials "shortly." He declined to be more specific.
Imclone is in clinical trials with one of its drugs and expects to begin clinical trials on another toward the end of this year.
-Nancy Beiles; 201-938-5393
And in another article about ENMD out today, Sugen CEO Evans-Freke blasted ENMD for trying to hype the stock on mice results.
Although there was a negative spin on ENMD on CNBC this AM,
Sugen was mentioned in a good light, as well as AGPH which just
started HUMAN trials on an anti-angiogenesis drug- almost a year
behind SUGN... and AGPH goes up 5!
My source says the big WSJ article on SUGN is ready to be released.
Positive mass-media exposure in WSJ has caused undiscovered stocks
like SUGN to double or triple.
Lehman just lowered ENMD to NEUTRAL with a target of $25. A few months
ago, SUGN was rated a BUY by Lehman with a target of $29. SUGN is way ahead of the pack in anti-angiogenesis drug development. With ENMD at $50, theres no way SUGN stays under $30. Either
I'm missing something really big or theres just a shi*load of money
sitting on the SUGN table from now until the big doctors conference
May 18.
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