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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: B.REVERE who wrote (5587)	9/17/1998 11:50:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

BR & thread, some information on Celebra and other COX-2 inhibitors from a fairly detailed article "Super Aspirin" published in the Globe & Mail (Canada's national newspaper) a few days ago. Very exciting drug. Definitely a blockbuster. - In clinical trails over the past 3 years, more than 11,000 people worldwide have reportedly tried the new drugs with comparatively few gastrointestinal woes. Incidents of stomach upsets were reported to be similar to those amongst patients taking placebos. - Some analysts project the potential market is so enormous that international sales for COX-2 inhibitors will leap beyond $5-billion (US) - placing it among blockbusters such as the impotency drug Viagra. - International clinical trials are now under way to evaluate what other healing qualities the new drugs might have. In colon cancer, for example, doctors believe COX-2 levels in healthy cells soar and spark excess growths that become polyps. The polyps then mutate and become cancerous. The hypothesis is that if COX-2 inhibitors can block levels of the enzyme from increasing in healthy cells then the polyps will never grow, and neither would the cancer. - Scientists are also hoping that COX-2 inhibitors could play a role in slowing the mind's deterioration in Alzheimer's disease. - Drug companies have applied to the WHO to recognize COX-2 inhibitors as a new category of drugs, and not simply a new generation of NSAIDS. - A month's supply will cost between C$40 to C$60, roughly the same amount as NSAIDS. Other than Monsanto/Pfizer, other drug companies with COX-2 inhibitors in the works: 1) Merck: Vioxx is in final human trials 2) Johnson & Johnson: in early development and remains unnamed, though clinical trials have begun in the U.S. 3) Glaxo-Welcome: has just begun clinical trials in humans 4) Boehringer Ingelheim: clinical trials are near completion in Canada but the company is not yet releasing its name.