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

To: Arthur Radley who wrote (25787)	9/26/1998 10:33:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Speaking of drug approvals, Monday's Barron's has an article on Invesco, a fund that has placed a significant bet on LLY. Looks like another TZD (Actos) is coming along, which, along with SBH's Avandia, should place more pressure on WLA, who is heavily dependent on profits from Rezulin. In pre-clinical tests (animal and human), Targretin and LGD1268 has been shown to synergize with Resulin and Avandia and I suspect that it synergizes with the Actos also. LGND also has its own TZD program, which is being developed in part with LLY support. Looks like LGND is in the right place at the right time (Targretin and LGD1268 synergize with Tamoxifen, and Evista and probably Droloxifene, CP-366,156, and TSE424 in the SERM category for treatment and prevention of breast cancer and osteoporosis, and the rexinoids also synergize with Resulin, Avandia, and probably Actos and other TZDs in the TZD category for diabetes and other metabolic diseases like obesity. Sounds like Avandia, Actos, and Targretin will be available next year. From Monday's Barron's: Clearly, a downside to drug stocks is that their fortunes are largely tied to expectations for new products, which need rigorous testing and, ultimately require regulatory approval, which is never certain. Consider also that research for the newest Lilly product that has Schroer raving hasn't even been published in English yet. Through a trusted translator, Schroer and the pair of analysts that help him run the fund found that plans for Actos, a diabetes treatment being developed by Japan's Takeda Chemical Industries and co-marketed by Eli Lilly, are further along than widely believed. The research that Schroer is banking on indicates that Actos could be available in 1999 and should provide a similar effect to Warner-Lambert's popular Resulin, but potentially without some of Resulin's controversial side effects, Schroer says.