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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: VLAD who wrote (8275)	5/21/1998 4:41:00 PM
From: VLAD	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23519

I'm getting tired of watching this stock go up and trade up most of the day only to drop on little volume towards days end. The market makers are the ones who should be sued. Seems like they can move the stock in whatever direction they please.

To: VLAD who wrote (8275)	5/21/1998 5:08:00 PM
From: E'Lane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23519

VLAD Only 2:00 in CA..think the meeting has had time to finish yet? Just trying to be positive, E'Lane

To: VLAD who wrote (8275)	5/21/1998 9:13:00 PM
From: DAVID	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 23519

VLAD (I'm still alive) and I made it to the annual meeting. MEETING NOTES: VIVUS 5/21 Before I begin my description of the meeting, I want to say that this is the first Stock Holders meeting that I have attended. I went in to view the setting, people, and discussion with an open mind. I am generally conservative in my views (I think). HERE GOES. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OVERVIEW -the meeting started at 10:03 and ended at 11:04 -approximately 70 investors + board of directors + Vivus personnel -Leland Wilson, well dressed, well groomed, upbeat, smiling. -Nina F., same as Wilson -two directors missing from meeting (i.e. fire the bastards). -a number of the men directors looked as if this was the last place they wanted to be. Leland, if you are reading my report, please require the directors to smile and act interested in the annual meeting. See that they have a pressed suit and well shined shoes to wear to the meeting. (I bet you all think I am kidding) I'M NOT. -female directors were well dressed but need to look as if they are interested in being at the meeting. Nothing wrong if you smile and act interested. -VP's introduced. Most of the VP's were well dressed and looked interested. -I got the feeling throughout the meeting that Leland wanted to get this over with. -slide show and presentation lasted 35 minutes. I rate the presentation as competent although there seemed to be too much frosting and not enough cake (i.e not enough specifics, grit detail, $ numbers, etc.) -question and answer lasted about 30 -35 minutes and was handled hap hazzardly. -meeting ended with Leland saying "Well we have the directors meeting after this meeting so I will take two more questions". Leland, buddy, I don't give a rats ass about the directors meeting. I thought his comment was real tacky. Who's more important, the stock holders or the directors ? Hmmmmmmm ! -during questioning, most of the stock holders asked questions that seemed to me to be milk toast questions. I said to myself 'who cares about this nonsense'. I want Wilson to fry and burn. I want some emotion and yelling. For the most part I thought I was at a concert recital things were so mellow. I didn't see Wilson sweat at all (except for my questions). -out of all of the people there, maybe 15 people asked questions during the 30 minutes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEETING NOTES (from Wilson's comments) -several people have died using Viagra and heart medicine. More negatives about Viagra will come out in the future according to Wilson. -seven out of ten people who use MUSE can have sex. -MUSE good for people with: organic etology, retinopathy, cardiovascular patients, and when oral therapy fails. -74 person sales force -150 person contract sales force -sales push is to primary care physicians -74% reimbursement for product. -pending approval in 20+ countries -approved in UK, sweden, switzerland, s. africa, argentina, brazil, s. korea, mexico. -new manufacturing facility at FULL CAPACITY. -new manufacturing facility expected to have 4 lines running at full tilt on 2 shifts by the end of June. -Vivus is growing as fast as possible. -constraint in growing is limited by trained people. -UK first 10 weeks - - - 1.33 million pounds sterling of product sold primarily through specialists. -staff increases -- new VP;s regulatory, personnel, operations. -FDA approval of new facility next couple of weeks. -pipeline -- MUSE to Alibra to 3rd generation drug to oral agent to gene therapy -premature ejaculation is a big new market -Incontinence is a big new market -Vivus PR is not as good as Wilson would like it to be. Vivus has hired New York firm to help with PR. (we already know all about this). -sales outside the US will be higher than sales inside the US for FY98. -Viagra is the fastest growing prescription drug in US history for the first month of sales. This has caused sales slow down for MUSE but Wilson expects MUSE to recover. He does not speculate when bottom of curve will be reached but feels it will be soon. -new plant in Ireland will break ground in September. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ QUESTIONS -I asked: have there been any buy out discussions with Vivus by other companies. answer: no comment -I asked: you spoke about the development of new products and therapys for Vivus, what are the launch dates for each of the 5 therapys mentioned. answer: Alibra scheduled for market introduction first quarter of 2000; Alibra will finish clincials first quarter 1999. (i.e. what he is saying is that everything else is just pie in the sky). In other words, MUSE is all we have until 2000. He made no comparisons between MUSE and Alibra. -I asked: are we going to sue any of the parties that have made unfavorable remarks about Vivus in the media. answer: NO -many other questions asked were technical in nature and did not seem to me to be relevant to sales, earnings, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY -I tried to ask as many questions as I could but only got in three. -Vivus is trying to reduce manufacturing costs with the new plant. I do not know when or if the old plant will be discontinued. I do not know when more lines will be added to new plant. -no earnings or revenue projections were made during the hour for FY98 or FY99. -it did not appear to me that any broker/analysts were at the meeting. -Wilson did all the talking for Vivus. -a lot of questions were left really unanswered and vague. -the major positive comments I heard from the meeting were: manufacturing all the product we can, FDA approval in the next few weeks, ground breaking in Ireland in September, 4 lines up at new plant by end of June, refill rates holding at a good level, new prescriptions rate falling at a slower rate as each week passes and bottom is soon, many new countries 'on line' soon, good UK sales, more sales outside US than in US, big new markets in the future, Viagra opening up the awareness of ED. THAT IS IT FOLKS. DAVID -