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Biotech / Medical : XOMA. Bull or Bear? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockDoc who wrote (6934)	8/13/1998 10:44:00 AM
From: Bluegreen	Respond to of 17367

Doc, this is a long shot and high risk stock BUT the reason I have invested in Xoma can be summed up in the following: Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are developing novel products to overcome resistance. Better understanding of the microbiology and molecular genetics of microbial resistance is leading to the development of a new generation of anti-microbials that use different mechanisms of action to kill bacteria or fungi. New weapons in the fight against microbial infections also include antibiotic adjuvants, drugs given with antibiotics to enhance or renew their power. Antibiotic resistance is an important area of research for XOMA, and also for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In July 1996, Pat Scannon, MD, PhD, XOMA's chief scientific and medical officer, discussed issues concerning the development of anti-infective products to combat MDR microbes at an open meeting of the FDA's Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee. XOMA is currently building a pipeline of new anti-infectives from a human host-defense protein called BPI (bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein). BPI kills bacteria with a mode of action different from conventional antibiotics, and BPI-derived proteins have been shown to enhance the power of antibiotics, in some cases making resistant organisms susceptible. XOMA has completed a pilot trial testing its lead BPI-derived product, Neuprex(tm), as an antibiotic adjuvant in the treatment of severe intra-abdominal infections (see BPI backgrounder). In fall of 1997, XOMA embarked on a program to test Neuprex(tm) in combination with antibiotics to treat bacterial exacerbations in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients (see CF backgrounder). Studies of Neuprex(tm) against antibiotic-resistant bacteria in CF patients may also help XOMA understand how Neuprex(tm) might be more widely applied to treat MDR infections.