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

To: B.D. who wrote (22026)	6/9/1998 5:35:00 PM
From: ewolf	Respond to of 32384

Very apparent link between lgnd's stock price and henry's popularity. Judging by the hostility, henry appears to have bottomed and perhaps ligand as well.

To: B.D. who wrote (22026)	6/9/1998 6:38:00 PM
From: JOEBT1	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 32384

I spoke to a senior executive at LGND (not Pr)-- the following is a summary. Relative to SRGN acquisition the following was discussed. -LGND is focusing on ONTAK and will register ONTAK in Europe as well to expand the market. -They will conduct a small study on non-Hodgkins lymphoma and use results to expand ONTAK use(off label-re new FDA guidelines). This is a much bigger market than CTCL. -Marathon is moving to become a MFG business open to all customers. Half of their expenses are already covered by third party sales.Marathon will be P&L neutral for LGND. -He made the point that they got SRGN at a pre-approval price- the post approval price would have been much higher. They continue to be on target for '99 profitability (3rd or 4th quarter). SRGN has not changed financing needs. They will get milestones payments and expand existing research contracts (SKB). They can also incentizise the exercise of warrants by lowering the strike price for a short period for stock conversion before the mandatory June, 2000 date. They could raise about 40 Million this way. They should be starting breast cancer trial soon.They are still working on dosing levels in Europe PhaseII diabetes trial with Lilly. Lilly will make decision later this year on how to proceed with Targretin, 324 or 268. Other cancer trials (ovarian, lung, prostate ) will be available this year. Discussed the small molecule cytokine approach. They have made excellent progress. SKB is making significant investments in it. The target is billion $ drugs like epogen, neupogen, interleukin, etc. (Shades of Sepracor). Stayed tuned for announcements in near future. They have an embarrassment of riches in their pipeline-only 40% of known targets are being pursued. Overall a very positive discussion with an impressive executive. FWIW,No guarantees on above info.