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

To: Proton who wrote (23370)	7/20/1998 7:26:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Speaking of science, the BioWorld article (994 words) on the G-CSF mimic can be viewed for $2.25 at: newspage.com

To: Proton who wrote (23370)	7/20/1998 7:36:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's an interesting article on osteoporosis and SERMs: paradise-web.com

To: Proton who wrote (23370)	7/20/1998 8:34:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

<<Research expenses for Ligand are going to run into the billions of dollars. That's what you told the thread. I do not see the cash flow from current collaborations and the first products coming out of the vaunted Ligand pipeline to cover this. This means more collaborations. Since I am not a naif, I understand that this could mean more equity dilution. More collaborations do not mitigate the risk in holding the stock right now, they only increase the potential reward.>> I put up the $300 million figure for drug development to remind readers of what bug pharmas spend. However, I expect LGND to improve on this number by a significant margin. LGND has very powerful and relative cheap screening methods. The interesting molecules can also be modified and re-screened to allow for considerable fine tuning. LGND works on fairly well defined systems (hormones and receptors), so they can target resources rather effectively. For clinical trials, they partner out the larger indications and use several relatively small Phase II trials to identify drug candidates and appropriate patient populations. The drugs that move into expensive Phase III have a very high likelihood of success. Although all of the above is an improvement over older methods, the clinicals still take some time and are relatively costly for a company of LGND's size. LGND has been on time for its trials and its pipeline development has been truly remarkable. Their research engine continues to power their advances at an enviable rate and they remain grossly under funded. However, the progress on the research will eventually be recognized, but the current Biotech environment is less than ideal.