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Biotech / Medical : Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wolfdog2 who wrote (2265)	9/2/1998 10:25:00 AM
From: TomOrt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4676

To All, WSJ today.... September 2, 1998 Following Stock Market Slide, Pros Go in Search of Bargains By BRENDA L. MOORE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL With equities having tumbled, California money managers are scouring for cheap issues like bargain hunters going through the bins at a Wal-Mart clearance sale. And sure enough, they say they're finding plenty of enticing values out there....... Indeed, Bob Rodriguez, portfolio manager of FPA Capital Fund in Los Angeles, says he has more "buys" on his list now than he has had in several years because of all the "price destruction" of late. The key, he and others counsel, is sifting through and finding the "quality companies" that have gotten beaten up along with those that were truly overvalued and rightly due for a correction. Among Mr. Rodriguez's favorites: HomeBase, a warehouse-style home-improvement-chain based in Irvine. Other money managers, meanwhile, say they have their eyes on Burlingame-based children's clothier Gymboree and Isis Pharmaceuticals of Carlsbad....... Michael Murphy, publisher of the California Technology Stock Newsletter in Half Moon Bay, is also bottom-feeding these days. In particular, he's searching for stocks "that have been washed out" with the bulk of the market for no good reason, or those on the verge of "good news" that distinguishes them from the pack. FDA Approval Isis Pharmaceuticals, he contends, fits the bill. It's trading at about $7, off its 52-week high by 62%. Yet that's in spite of Food and Drug Administration approval last week of its drug Vitravene, aimed at treating an infection that causes blindness in people with AIDS. "This is probably a stock that can sell in the high teens or mid-20s, so the valuation is just sort of wacky," Mr. Murphy says. He figures Isis got "trapped in the biotech selling" that came with the market plunge, but will rise once the significance of the FDA's approval is fully absorbed by investors. The key to the company is its scientific prowess. Mr. Murphy and others say that while the market for treating the AIDS eye infection is tiny -- estimated at $40 million to $70 million a year -- Isis is using the same technology to develop other, potentially more lucrative drugs in its pipeline. Specifically, Isis uses what is known as "antisense therapy" -- synthetically designed DNA chains that block the production of proteins causing disease. With the FDA's blessing of Vitravene -- the first approved drug to use antisense therapy -- "people can now have greater conviction that antisense is a vital technology," says Mark Augustine, an analyst at S.G. Cowen Securities in Boston. He sees tremendous promise in Isis drugs aimed at inflammation, pointing to current studies of its treatment for Crohn's disease, a painful intestinal disorder. He projects that a Crohn's treatment will enter the market by 2001, giving Isis a big lift as it progresses toward the launch. "The inflammation program is a very important value driver" for the company's stock, he says. Like many biotech companies that have yet to take a product to market, Isis has never posted a profit. And Mr. Augustine anticipates further losses by the company for this year and next. But he has a "strong buy" on the stock, with a 12-month price target of $25. As for Mr. Murphy, he holds about 10,000 shares of Isis spread over two of his mutual funds. That's less than a 1% stake, but the company is on Mr. Murphy's "buy" list and he may well gobble up more. "If people can hang in there, there's huge amounts of money to be made" in a company like this, he says. When it comes to technology and biotech, "clearly the underlying business is still strong." * * * Copyright c 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

To: wolfdog2 who wrote (2265)	9/2/1998 1:13:00 PM
From: Edward Paule	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4676

<<< the Worth article calling it the next MSFT >>> I know I'm nit-picking, but I'm sick and tired of people misinterpreting the Worth article. The Worth article did NOT call Isis the next Microsoft! Go read it again if you don't believe me. The article was entitled, "finding the next Microsoft." The article discussed all the criteria that made Microsoft such a big hit. I'll summarize it as a monopoly in an emerging high-growth market. The article then discussed various companies that currently come close to fitting that criteria. None fit the criteria. Isis came the closest. The article concluded that it could not find the next Microsoft. However, it concluded that it had found the next best thing, the next Amgen. That's right, the Worth article called ISIP the next AMGN; not the next MSFT. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble; but the truth is the truth. - Ed.