Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1350)	1/23/1999 6:53:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

Merck's Antidepressant Setback Shows Risks in Drug Research Bloomberg News January 23, 1999, 5:42 p.m. ET Merck's Antidepressant Setback Shows Risks in Drug Research Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co., the world's biggest drugmaker, will be under more pressure to find new blockbuster pills after dropping an experimental antidepressant once touted as a potential rival to Eli Lilly & Co.'s Prozac, analysts said. Merck fell 7 5/16 to 139 yesterday on news it wouldn't move a compound, which affects a brain chemical called substance P, to more advanced testing as an antidepressant. Instead, Merck will test the compound MK-869 for use against nausea associated with chemotherapy. Merck also will look at a less advanced compound as a possible antidepressant. MK-869 was seen as one of the brightest prospects in Merck's research program, a $2 billion-a-year enterprise considered among the best in the world. Facing the loss of patents by 2001 on four drugs that top $5 billion in combined annual sales, Merck built expectations for MK-869. If it worked as expected, MK-869 could have rivaled drugs with more than $1 billion in annual sales. ''This will remind people that this is not a risk-free business, '' said Jeffrey Chaffkin, an analyst with PaineWebber Inc., who has a ''neutral'' rating on Merck. ''There are failures. It is not an easy ride.'' Priced for Perfection Given the drug industry's recent string of successes, some investors may have lost sight of that, analysts said. They may have come to expect the kind of gains that new blockbuster drugs have delivered for Pfizer Inc., Warner-Lambert Co., Eli Lilly & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. in the past several years. Tuesday, Pfizer reported that fourth-quarter profit rose 42 percent to $711 million, or 54 cents a share, as it introduced anti-impotence pill Viagra in Europe. The success of Viagra and other Pfizer pills, such as the antidepressant Zoloft, boosted the company's stock 48 percent in the past year to 115 3/4. ''These drug stocks are priced for perfection, so even a minor setback such as (Merck's Friday news) can cause a potential setback for the share price,'' said Jack Lamberton, an analyst with HSBC Securities. Yet, setbacks may be the only thing that can be counted in drug research. Merck's announcement yesterday followed a similar Friday afternoon surprise from Monsanto Co. a week earlier. Monsanto said Jan. 15 that it dropped two late-stage heart drugs. The Merck and Monsanto drugs were in what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration calls ''Phase III,'' the last and most extensive set of tests done in humans before applying for FDA approval of a drug. Expanding Research Programs Drugmakers test and reject scores of compounds that never even make it to testing in humans, let alone the most advanced stage of clinical trials, said John LaMattina, who leads Pfizer's basic drug research. ''Ninety percent of the time, you fail,'' LaMattina said in an interview last month. ''If you are unsuccessful 85 percent of the time, then you are doing a spectacular job.'' To increase the odds, drugmakers are expanding their research programs as quickly as they can. Construction projects have made it tough to find parking spaces at Merck's eastern Pennsylvania laboratories and Pfizer's in eastern Connecticut. Rival drugmakers such as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. also have plans to hire more scientists in the hunt for new medicines. Still, drugmakers may not find the wave of blockbuster medicines in their own labs. They all are looking at the late- stage research of smaller rivals and of biotechnology companies and make agreements to sell what they hope will be the next big pill. Although Merck has tended to rely on its own research for new products, the company does have the money to make licensing agreements. In 1998, Merck sold its share of a joint venture to DuPont Co. for $2.6 billion. It also agreed to a restructuring of a similar alliance with Astra AB that could give Merck at least $4.4 billion by 2008. ''They have to do something to get new products,'' PaineWebber's Chaffkin said. ''They are going to have to find something to replace (MK-869) in their pipeline.'' --Kerry Dooley in the New York newsroom (212) 318-2300 with

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1350)	1/25/1999 8:50:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1722

Key Dates for Popular Drug Prozac Sunday January 24 1:59 PM ET By The Associated Press A glance at key dates for Prozac: 1983 - Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY - news) submits an application to the Food and Drug Administration to sell Prozac for the treatment of depression. 1987 - FDA approves application in December. 1988 - Lilly begins U.S. sales. 1989 - Prozac-user Joseph Wesbecher shoots 27 people, seven of them fatally, at a Louisville, Ky., printing plant before killing himself. A jury eventually would find the drug did not cause Wesbecher's rampage. 1990 - Harvard researchers published a study showing some Prozac patients suffered suicidal thoughts. Subsequent attacks on the drug's safety by the Church of Scientology help prompt Lilly to make a standing offer to defend any doctor who prescribes the drug. Lilly also helps prosecutors battle the so-called ''Prozac defense'' in which dozens of criminal defendants attribute their misdeeds to the drug's effect on their thinking. 1992 - Annual worldwide sales of Prozac top $1 billion. 1995 - Barr Laboratories, saying the Prozac patents are flawed, asks the Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell a generic version of Prozac. 1996 - Lilly files patent infringement lawsuit against Barr in U.S. District Court. A separate lawsuit against Geneva Pharmaceuitcals later is consolidated with it. Monday - Trial on the lawsuit set to begin. Pending are Lilly's patent infringement cases against three other generic drug companies, Zenith-Goldline, Teva and Reddy-Cheminor.