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Biotech / Medical : Cistron Biotechnology(CIST)$.30 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Metcalf who wrote (1691)	11/14/1998 3:06:00 PM
From: Rudy Saucillo	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 2742

In light of the PMC deal, I think Walter has posed a good question: what companies would likely be interested in Cistron? I can imagine Cistron being sold in pieces. Since Galton has not focused on the reagents business and sales have consistently declined while the industry has consolidated, it's probably best to sell this part of the company and have cash up-front rather than future declining sales. Any number of aggressive reagents companies may be interested. TECHNE is a natural to consider although they may not be interested given the sweet licensing agreement Cistron gave them. I've always thought Life Technologies, a behemoth in the field, might want the rights to sell IL-1b. Let's pick one area where Cistron has ongoing research: wound healing. A company in this field which may be an interesting fit is Biospecifics Technologies (BSTC). They are an aggressive wound healing company with 1 product (Collagenase, used for skin debridement), growing sales, and a research program to develop applications for injectible collagenase. They have $7.1M in cash and equivalents and ~5M shares outstanding. Their website is: biospecifics.com The benefit to BSTC of a CIST merger is: (1) a cash windfall for additional acquisitions or expanded research activities, (2) an additional [and complementary] potential wound healing therapeutic, and (3) a possible revenue windfall if the PMC research is a success. The benefit to Cistron is: (1) diversification, (2) strong earnings growth in a field Cistron is attempting to enter. This is just one example. There are several others in this field I can quickly think of and numerous others in other areas. Rudy