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

To: Henry Niman who wrote (22969)	7/9/1998 10:34:00 AM
From: Robert S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Greetings all. I have followed LGND for quite some time as I find it's technology platform to be intriguing and full of promise. The performance of LGND's stock is also intriguing, albeit in a different fashion. In considering any potential investment, I try my best to view it from as many different perspectives as possible. The HMO "angle", and how it relates to LGND, are questions I am currently pondering. Simply, HMOs manage health care costs and strive to ensure satisfactory profit margins. Operating under the premise that new drugs minimize overall costs (e.g., shortened hospital stays, reduced outpatient care, less need for surgery) and that drug spending will increase as a percentage of total health care expenditures (as managed care recognizes the cost-saving attributes of drug treatment), how well is LGND positioned to exploit these trends? LGND's STAT technology allows for pharmaceutical compounds to be manufactured and modified in an economically feasible manner. This leads me to the following: if a disease develops resistance to LGND's drugs targeting the malady, but the resistance can be overcome by modifying the drug, will this "new" modified compound have to go through the arduous FDA process or will it be accepted as an improved version of an already existing approved drug?