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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread Formerly Known as No Rest For The Wicked -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Louis Cornell who wrote (2701)	12/8/1998 12:07:00 AM
From: Mr.Manners	Respond to of 90042

might want to check this: a mention of ZILA in this news from Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson Faces FDA Panel Review for MS Drug Jan. 29 Johnson & Johnson Faces FDA Panel Review for MS Drug Jan. 29 Washington, Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson in January will ask an expert U.S. government panel in January to recommend that its new multiple sclerosis drug, known as cladribine, be approved for sale. If successful, the giant drugs and consumer products maker will have cleared a key hurdle on the path to entering the $1 billion MS market and facing top competitors Biogen Inc. and Schering AG. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will meet Jan. 29 to discuss the drug, according to the FDA's advisory panel hotline. The agency generally follows the advice of its expert panels. ''It's a necessary step,'' said Craig Rothenberg, a spokesman for the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company. ''It's good to get some experts together'' to discuss the drug, he said. Shares of Johnson & Johnson, the world's fifth biggest drugmaker, fell 1/16 to 81 11/16 in late trading. The company to date hasn't said much publicly about the drug, and Rothenberg declined to comment further today. Johnson & Johnson is looking to new products to help it make up for losing its near-monopoly on a profitable heart device known as a stent. Last week, the company announced that it will cut 4,100 jobs and close 36 plants amid sluggish sales growth. Ares-Serono SA also sells a MS treatment known as Rebif outside the U.S., including in Europe and in Canada, and Israel's Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has FDA approval to sell its Copaxone MS treatment in the U.S. The disease destroys the insulation that protects and transmits impulses around nerve fibers in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerves, so that nerve impulses to and from the brain are distorted and interrupted. Scientists are stymied about what causes the disease, which often strikes people in their 20s or 30s and is found most frequently among women in colder climates. There is no cure. Other New Drugs Separately, a host of new products for cancer patients are slated for review at an FDA advisory panel meeting on Jan. 12 and Jan. 13. They include Orphan Medical Inc.'s Busulfex drug to treat patients about to undergo a procedure such as a bone marrow transplant, Schering-Plough Corp.'s Temodal drug for several kinds of cancers, including brain tumors and severe skin cancer, a new use for Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co.'s Prograf immunosuppressant drug for patients undergoing bone marrow transplants and Zila Inc.'s oral cancer detection test.