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

To: jopawa who wrote (955)	1/22/1999 8:19:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 2539

Monsanto drug unit to focus on arthritis, cancer Thursday January 21, 8:23 pm Eastern Time CHICAGO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Life sciences firm Monsanto Co. (NYSE:MTC - news) said Thursday its Searle pharmaceutical unit, which last week discontinued two heart drug studies, will focus its research on arthritis and pain management, oncology and heart disease. St. Louis-based Monsanto, whose products include Roundup herbicide and Nutrasweet artificial sweetener, said six of Searle's pipeline drug candidates are in Phase III clinical trials, the last stage before seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Monsanto said the investigational drugs now in Phase III studies include three COX-2 inhibitors, the same compound that is in its Celebrex arthritis treatment, which recently received FDA approval. The COX-2 inhibitors are designed to block pain without potentially deadly gastrointestinal side effects. Searle is working on valdecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor designed to treat inflammation and pain, parecoxib, which is an injectable drug meant for post-surgery pain management, and celecoxib, which is designed to reduce polyps that may be precursors to certain forms of colon cancer. Nicholas Filippello, chief economist at Monsanto, said in a telephone interview that valdecoxib is ''substantially more potent'' than the recently approved Celebrex. He declined to speculate on when Searle might seek FDA approval for the compounds. Other investigational drugs being evaluated in Phase III trials include eplerenone, a cardiovascular drug for the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure, leridistim, a blood cell growth factor designed to help prevent infections in cancer patients after chemotherapy, and hormone replacement therapy patches for the treatment of menopausal symptoms and estrogen deficiency. Last Friday, Searle ended studies on two drugs, orbofiban and xemilofiban that the company had hoped would help reduce the risk of repeat heart attacks. The drugs had been in development for 10 years, but Searle said data suggested they did not significantly reduce deaths, heart attacks and other heart problems. Earlier today, Monsanto said it earned $27 million, or $0.05 a share, in the 1998 fourth quarter, down from last year's $55 million, or $0.09 a share. Both figures exclude charges. Sales climbed to $2.1 billion from $1.8 billion the prior year. Searle posted net sales of $953 million and earnings before interest expense and taxes (EBIT) of $179 million. Shares of Monsanto were down 1-1/16 at 38-7/8.

To: jopawa who wrote (955)	1/22/1999 8:42:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2539

Monsanto seeks OK on sweetener Friday, January 22, 1999 By Robert Steyer Of The Post-Dispatch Monsanto Co. said Thursday it has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve a new artificial sweetener that the company says is 6,000 to 8,000 times as sweet as sugar. Monsanto has spent 17 years researching and developing the sugar substitute, which was once called Sweetener 2000 and is now known as Neotame. The new sweetener would build upon the powerful franchise of aspartame-based sweeteners - NutraSweet for food ingredients and Equal for table-top uses. These sugar substitutes, now subject to generic competition, are 200 times as sweet as sugar. The Neotame application covers uses ranging from diet soft drinks to baked goods to desserts. Thirteen months ago, Monsanto asked the FDA to approve the sweetener for table-top uses, but the FDA hasn't acted yet. Monsanto's petition was made as other companies have stepped up marketing efforts of brand-name sweeteners against NutraSweet, which still dominates the sugar substitute market. Germany's Hoechst Group is selling Sunett, also known as acesulfame potassium, for use in a number of products, including Pepsi One. The FDA approved Sunett for the crucial diet soft drink market in July. Johnson & Johnson received FDA approval in April for Splenda. This sugar substitute, whose chemical name is sucralose, has been approved for 15 food categories, among them diet soft drinks. Monsanto's Neotame announcement was a low-key, one-sentence mention in the company's report on 1998 financial results. "We didn't want to raise expectations because it takes a fair amount of time to get sweeteners approved," said Lori Fisher, a Monsanto spokeswoman. Copyright (c) 1999, St. Louis Post-Dispatch stlnet.com