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

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (209)	5/9/1998 1:56:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 642

Transcript of an interview that's definitely worth reading. Taurel & Tobias: Passing the Torch at Eli Lilly cnn.com Part of the interview: TOBIAS: Well, I think there's a tendency at times for the market over expect. But I think we are at a point in this industry where we're really at a crossroads in the technology. And we're going to see very explosive changes in the next few years. So... THIERRY: Fair enough, Mr. Tobias. However, the drug Evista, right now apparently, the expectations have been lowered over it. One analyst actually has lowered its rating on Eli Lilly from an accumulate -- actually from a buy to an accumulate. He still recommends it, however, but how do you respond to that? TOBIAS: Well, I think that is a case where the market has over expected. We're really creating a new market here for the prevention of osteoporosis and most women who are at risk for osteoporosis aren't really focused on that. But, based on clinical trials that we have underway and expectations that we have for the long term, there will be potentially other indications for this drug, and long term, this is very likely to be a blockbuster drug. DEFTERIOS: Mr. Taurel, this is what we were eluding to here with Evista. It has potential applications to breast cancer. Is that something that's going to be on the market for that in the next year or so? TAUREL: Not that quickly, no. What we have is data coming from our studies on osteoporosis, which indicate that the drug may be useful in the prevention of breast cancer. We still need to conduct the trial directly at evaluating the effectiveness of the drug at preventing of breast cancer for us to be able to have a plan approved by the FDA and promotable to physicians. THIERRY: All right, Mr. Tobias or Mr. Taurel, if I could address this question to either one of you, Prozac, of course, is coming off its patent in the next few years. You've got to come up with something to replace that. Obviously, that's been a blockbuster for Eli Lilly. Perhaps, we could ask the next head of Lilly what he intends to do? TAUREL: Yes, what we are doing is accelerating the development of products which are in our pipeline. We are launching a new indications for products that we have launched recently. In the last three years, we launched five new products and they have several additional indications beyond the ones that they were approved for originally. And thirdly, we are working on business development opportunities to try to bring more technologies into the company. DEFTERIOS: And your schizophrenia drug has done extremely well. Mr. Tobias, anything that's really optimistic in the pipeline we can specifically point to for investors? TOBIAS: Well, we have a number of things coming along in some of the fields in which we've traditionally been very strong. So, our pipeline is really very strong in the years ahead.