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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henry Niman who wrote (20543)	5/11/1998 10:18:00 PM
From: Hippieslayer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

What Time article? This week? Please let me know which issue. It will be nice to finally see LGND as a "main attraction" when being discusses and not as an "btw, here's other companies that are working on cancer." It's all in the details. LGND get exposure when there is a serious look at their science, drugs and the markets that they will be addressing. A quick mention here and there is nice but not enough to peak the interest in those watching or reading.

To: Henry Niman who wrote (20543)	5/13/1998 5:52:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's more good news on Evista: Tuesday May 12 5:55 PM EDT Raloxifene reduces heart risk NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Postmenopausal women who take raloxifene (trade-named Evista) to lower their risk of osteoporosis may also be reducing their risk of heart disease, according to a study. However, the study's authors say raloxifene's cardiac benefits may still not match those of traditional hormone replacement therapies (HRT). "For the most part, the direction of the response (after raloxifene treatment) paralleled that of HRT, although not necessarily of the same magnitude," conclude researchers led by Dr. Brian Walsh of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Their study appears in the May 13th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Raloxifene, already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in reducing osteoporosis risk in postmenopausal women, made new headlines last month when preliminary studies revealed it might also help prevent breast cancer in women at high risk for the disease. Now, the latest research suggests that the drug could reduce certain heart disease risk factors in postmenopausal women as well. If so, raloxifene might prove an effective alternative to HRT, which reduces cardiovascular risks but increases a woman's chances of developing ovarian or breast cancer. The researchers enlisted 390 healthy postmenopausal women and randomly assigned them to one of four different therapies: 60 milligrams per day (mg/d) of raloxifene, 120 mg/d of raloxifene, conventional HRT, or placebo. Blood tests measuring levels of various compounds linked to cardiac risk were taken at 3 and 6 months after initiation of treatment. "Raloxifene... favorably alters several markers of cardiovascular risk," reported the study authors. However, they also found that the most important of these beneficial changes were not equal in magnitude with those wrought by HRT. For example, compared with the placebo group, women taking raloxifene saw their blood levels of LDL -- called the "bad" cholesterol because it increases heart risk -- drop by an average of 12%. But HRT users saw their LDL levels fall by 14% during the same time period. And whereas raloxifene had no impact whatsoever on raising blood levels of HDL -- the "good" cholesterol -- HRT pushed HDL levels 10% higher. The study also found that raloxifene reduced levels of lipoprotein(a), another blood fat associated with an increased risk of heart disease, by about 8% compared with an HRT-linked reduction of 19%. In contrast, the researchers say raloxifene actually beat out HRT when it came to beneficially altering blood levels of triglycerides, the fat transporters Apo-A and Apo B, and a blood-clotting compound called fibrinogen. Dr. Gilbert Ross, medical director for the non-profit American Council on Science and Health, believes raloxifene "has many of the beneficial effects of HRT, while lacking some of its inherent risks." Meanwhile, the study's authors say "further clinical trails are necessary" to confirm the long-term health benefits (if any) of raloxifene therapy on cardiac health. The research was supported by a grant from Eli Lilly & Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, the makers of Evista. SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association (1998;279:1445-1451)

To: Henry Niman who wrote (20543)	5/13/1998 6:25:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's the AP version: May 13, 1998 Study Finds Some Promise in Alternative to Estrogen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Related Article The New York Times: Women's Health ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO -- A new alternative to estrogen may offer older women many of the hormone's healthful effects on hearts and bones without one of its most worrisome side effects, an increased risk of breast cancer. But experts warned that it was too soon for a definitive verdict on the custom-designed synthetic estrogen, raloxifene. Millions of women take estrogen to counter the effects of menopause, which include thinning bones. But many refuse to take the hormone because of its potential to increase the risk of breast cancer. Raloxifene has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Now a study has found that raloxifene, like estrogen, might also protect the heart, researchers reported in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. "It potentially has promise to be a pathway to go beyond the estrogen dilemma," said the lead author, Dr. Brian W. Walsh, director of the Menopause Center at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The study found that raloxifene lowered levels of low-density lipoprotein, or L.D.L., the so-called "bad" cholesterol, by 12 percent in postmenopausal women, compared with 14 percent for estrogen. Raloxifene failed to improve levels of high-density lipoproteins, the "good" cholesterol that protects against heart disease. The drug also had much less of a favorable effect than estrogen does on a blood fat called lipoprotein-a. But the drug did lower levels of a clotting protein called fibrinogen, another risk factor for heart disease, while estrogen did not. The study involved 390 healthy, postmenopausal women at eight medical centers nationwide. Some were given standard hormone replacement therapy that included estrogen; some were given dummy pills, and some received raloxifene. The maker of raloxifene, Eli Lilly & Company, helped pay for the study. Dr. Walsh said it was too soon to tell if raloxifene, marketed as Evista, will become an alternative to estrogen, the most commonly prescribed drug in the United States. He said that more research is needed to test whether raloxifene really prevents heart disease, which kills almost seven times as many women as breast cancer in the 55-and-over age group. "Where I think the drug will find it's place is for women after they've gone through the menopause symptoms, when they're older, and they're more at risk for breast cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis," Dr. Walsh said. "Raloxifene could protect them against those three conditions." Dr. Basil M. Rifkind, a senior adviser at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, said he was not convinced. A recent study found raloxifene did not protect postmenopausal monkeys from heart disease, while estrogen did, he noted. No rigorous study has been done to determine whether raloxifene or estrogen prevents heart disease in humans, although there is a lot of data to strongly suggest that estrogen does, Dr. Rifkind said. In the meantime, researchers said, women and their doctors will have to weigh the findings and the woman's individual risks and concerns. Raloxifene's few side effects can include hot flashes or leg cramps. Estrogen is effective at relieving hot flashes but causes menstrual periods to resume in most women.