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 : CYPB - Cypress BioScience -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ben Geh who wrote (486)	1/26/1999 8:47:00 AM
From: muddphudd	Respond to of 586

Check out some of the posts on the Yahoo CYPB thread. Apparently, the FDA's concerns can be answered on paper and will not require more trial data. That is a good thing (better than what happened to IPIC with their drug for stroke). Also, the January 28th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has an article about the combined use of Immunex's Enbrel (called Etanercept in the paper) with Methotrexate. They found that the combination had significantly greater clinical benefit than methotrexate alone. This is very good news for patients. It also means that Immunex will be able to market their Enbrel for combination therapy in more resistant cases of RA. Whether this will take away from Prosorba I do not know.

To: Ben Geh who wrote (486)	1/26/1999 8:59:00 AM
From: muddphudd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 586

There is also an interesting article in the January 1999 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation about decreased angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation) in Rheumatoid Arthritis with the use of an antagonist to the integrin alpha-v-beta 3. This integrin is crucial for blood vessels undergoing angiogenesis. Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, is one of the earliest histopathologic findings in rheumatoid arthritis and appears to be required for the massive synovial proliferation and changes in synovial archtitecture resulting in interdigitating folds of tissue, termed pannus. This neovascularization not only maintains the chronic architectural changes of the pannus but plays an active role in inflammation as a source of both cytokines and protease activity. In the paper, the authors use a cyclic peptide antagonist to the integrin to block angiogenesis in rabbits with rheumatoid arthritis. They found that joint swelling decreased, inflammation decreased, and pannus formation decreased. In the materials and methods sections they mention that the compound was provided by MERCK! This field is getting more and more competitive!