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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chirodoc who wrote (615)	11/25/1998 2:58:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2539

Monsanto stock rises by 5.8 pct. [St. Louis is Monsanto's home town] Wednesday, November 25, 1998 By [Robert Steyer Of The Post-Dispatch Monsanto Co.'s stock rose 5.8 percent Tuesday, one day after the company received a favorable bond rating and revealed some details of its financial independence plan. The shares were up $2.38 to $43.38. On Monday, Standard & Poor's Corp. reaffirmed its investment grade ratings on Monsanto's long-term debt and commercial paper. The ratings are important to Monsanto's money-raising efforts after last month's collapse of merger talks with American Home Products Corp. Last week, two other firms slightly downgraded Monsanto's debt, but the ratings remain investment grade. The ratings will determine Monsanto's cost of issuing $2.5 billion in long-term, unsecured debt - perhaps as early as next week. The debt is part of a financial package, announced two weeks ago, as Monsanto tries to show Wall Street it can survive as an independent company that will cut its debt and also maintain adequate support for research and marketing. The package includes raising at least $1 billion by selling some assets. In the transactions announced Monday: * Monsanto will sell $900 million in stock - 22.5 million shares at $40 a share. * Underwriters can offer 2.46 million more shares if the stock offering attracts a stampede of investors, * Monsanto will offer $700 million worth of a hybrid product called an adjustable conversion-rate equity security. The company, which predicts it will clear $1.55 billion after transaction costs, expects these securities to be sold by Nov. 30. The money will help Monsanto complete a pair of big seed company acquisitions. Copyright (c) 1998, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

To: chirodoc who wrote (615)	11/27/1998 1:58:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2539

11/27 11:02 Reuters: FDA advisers to consider first of new pain drugs By Alicia Ault WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A drug for treatment of arthritis pain, the first of a widely anticipated group of new pain-relieving drugs, goes before a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel next week. The drug, Celebrex, made by Monsanto Co. <MTC.N> unit G.D. Searle, is in a class of drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors that should be better suited for long-term use because they do not attack the stomach lining like other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) such as aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen. An estimated 16 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis, the degenerative disease of the joints that affects virtually everyone over the age of 75. At the advisory meeting on Tuesday, Celebrex might also be recommended for the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own joint tissues that affects about 1 percent of the population. The FDA is not bound by the advice of its advisory committees but usually follows their recommendations. The market for such drugs looks huge as the population ages. "I think $3 (billion) to $4 billion a year is almost a given," independent drug industry analyst Hemant Shah told Reuters. Merck and Co. Inc. <MRK.N> has submitted a similar drug called Vioxx for FDA approval. Searle plans to co-market Celebrex with Pfizer Inc. <PFE.N> COX-2 drugs hold the potential to curb hospitalizations and deaths in people at highest risk for gastrointestinal problems, Lee Simon, a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said. Complications such as ulcers and stomach perforations cause 7,000 to 20,000 deaths a year, according to Stanford University researchers. Sold by prescription and over the counter, NSAIDS are taken by at least 13 million Americans for arthritis. "These new drugs are a light-year development forward from a safety point of view," Simon, who has been an investigator for several Celebrex studies, added. Simon said COX-2s will also be important for patients who need to have surgery. Often they have to stop taking traditional anti-inflammatory drugs up to two weeks prior or just after surgery because they can cause bleeding. COX-2 inhibitors affect cyclooxygenase-2, an enzyme made by the body in response to pain or trauma. When COX-2 is released, it triggers the production of prostaglandin hormones that cause swelling and inflammation. The drugs do not block COX-2 release, but do reduce the amount of prostaglandin being made. But detailed clinical data on Celebrex has not yet been published, and some researchers still have concerns about COX-2 drugs. "I will predict these won't be safer in patients with intrinsic kidney disease," Harvard's Simon said. At an FDA meeting on COX-2 drugs in March, FDA advisers said they wanted more data on the drugs' effects on the kidney, and also on bone, fertility, and mental performance. But drug industry analysts think Celebrex is destined for approval. "The downside is going to be price," Hambrecht & Quist analyst Alex Zisson said. With treatment expected to cost $2-$4 a day, Zisson thinks first year sales may hit $300-400 million, but final estimates will depend on whether health insurers decide on strict limits for who gets the new drugs, according to Zisson. The FDA advisers will also have a say in which patients will best benefit. "This shouldn't be used for a headache, this should be used in patients on long-term therapy for arthritis," Simon said.