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

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1418)	2/10/1999 2:29:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

02/10 12:04 U.S. drug giant [BMY] dumps once-promising cancer drug By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. <BMY.N> said on Wednesday it was giving up development of a once-pomising cancer drug that made global headlines last year after its success in mice. Bristol-Myers said it would stop working jointly with EntreMed Inc. <ENMD.O> to develop the drug, angiostatin, and would cut loose the tiny biotechnology company to develop it on its own. "They have a more vested interest in seeing this go forward," Robert Kramer, vice president for oncology drug discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said in a telephone interview. "We do, too, but we won't take it forward until we feel we have dotted the I's and crossed the T's in terms of getting it into humans." Angiostatin generated headlines worldwide last year as the great new hope against cancer after the New York Times featured the drug and its promise in a front-page article. Developed by Dr. Judah Folkman of Children's Hospital in Boston, it is one of a new class of drugs that starve out tumors by stopping them from growing a blood supply. They are known as angiogenesis inhibitors. Angiostatin and a sister drug, endostatin, worked very well in mice, completely curing many of them of their laboratory-induced cancer. Folkman teamed up with Rockville, Maryland-based EntreMed to develop the two drugs, and the company's stock shot up on the New York Times report. But such drugs require time and painstaking effort to develop, and many of them never make it to human, or clinical, trials. The company is trying to genetically engineer yeast to produce human versions of angiostatin. Scientists at the National Cancer Institute, who also were working with EntreMed and Folkman, said they had trouble producing enough endostatin to test on people. EntreMed's stock fell on that news. It fell even farther on Wednesday after the Bristol-Myers announcement. EntreMed's shares were down 11 5/8 at 12 7/8 on Nasdaq in late morning trading. Bristol-Myers couched its announcement in careful terms, saying that it was revising its agreement with EntreMed. "At this time, angiostatin protein in its present form does not meet our criteria for molecules that advance to clinical trials," Kramer said in a statement. But Kramer said if EntreMed's could make angiostatin work on its own, Bristol-Myers help bring the drug to market. He said Bristol would work on its own angiogenesis inhibitors. "Angiostatin posed enough challenges that it would encumber us from trying to run with these ideas, whereas for EntreMed, this is one of their primary areas that they have," Kramer said. Big drug companies often team up with small biotechnology firms to develop new compounds. The big company sometimes underwrites the research. More often, the smaller company takes the risks and must work hard to prove a drug works before the larger firm takes any financial liability. Dr. John Holaday, chairman, president and chief executive officer of EntreMed, said his company would move ahead with angiostatin. "EntreMed's development plan for angiostatin will include scale-up ... manufacturing of the protein for clinical trials and submission of an Investigational New Drug application (with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) this year," Holaday said. Several other angiogenesis inhibitors are in human trials, including Sugen Inc.'s <SUGN.O> SU5416, EntreMed's thalidomide and British Biotech's <BBG.L> Marimastat. Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc. <MAGN.O> is testing squalamine, derived from dogfish sharks, in Phase I safety trials. Canadian biotech company AEterna Laboratories <AEL.TO> is in Phase III clinical trials with another shark-based angiogenesis inhibitor, Neovastat.

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1418)	2/10/1999 2:38:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

Bristol-Myers Halts Lobucavir Trial on Safety Concern (Update1) Bloomberg News February 10, 1999, 12:10 p.m. ET Bristol-Myers Halts Lobucavir Trial on Safety Concern (Update1) (Adds analyst comment, updates share activity.) New York, Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker, said it halted tests of a hepatitis-and-herpes drug after studies in rats revealed a tumor risk, the company's second drug-discovery setback in two days. Bristol-Myers said it has halted tests of the drug lobucavir, which was in the last of three stages of testing required to apply for U.S. approval. Yesterday, the company said it ended an agreement to develop a much-publicized EntreMed Inc. experimental cancer drug. The back-to-back disappointments show the high odds drugmakers face in bringing new medicines to the market. Earlier this year, Merck & Co. dropped research into a compound as a potential blockbuster depression drug. ''The chances are always better for a compound to fail than for it to succeed,'' said Cynthia Beach, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. ''Still, the timing isn't good'' for Bristol. The company said rats that were given the drug as part of ''lifetime'' safety studies appear to have a higher rate of tumors which may be drug-related. The company halted its studies of the drug to examine all the data, and said that there has been no link to any increased tumors in humans. Animal findings often vary from the effects a drug has on humans, but are an important tool in evaluating safety and efficacy. Sales of lobucavir could have been about $200 million by 2002, according to an SG Cowen estimate last month. Shares in Bristol-Myers fell 3/4 to 121 3/4 in midday trading. Lobucavir, designed to treat chronic hepatitis B and herpes, has been given to about 5,000 patients worldwide -- most of whom took the drug for five days or less, the company said. The company had reached the third of three stages of development required for marketing clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. --Kristin Reed in Washington (202) 624-1858 with reporting by

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1418)	2/10/1999 2:49:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

02/10 03:33 Monsanto's Celebrex is No. 2 in prescriptions -WSJ NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Monsanto Co.'s <MTC.N> arthritis pain drug Celebrex generated prescriptions in its third week on the market at more than six times those of cholesterol drug Lipitor at a comparable stage, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday. Celebrex produced 82,000 prescriptions in the week ended Sunday, making it the second-fastest start for a new drug in recent years, surpassing Lipitor, which had 13,100 prescriptions written in its third week in 1997, according to a report by pharmaceutical information provider NDC Health Information Services, the paper said. Lipitor, which is co-marketed by Warner-Lambert Co. <WLA.N> and Pfizer Inc. <PFE.N>, is expected to generate $3.1 billion in sales this year, the paper said. Celebrex's sales are exceeded only by those of Pfizer impotence drug Viagra, which sold 224,100 prescriptions in its third week, the paper said. Pfizer is also co-marketing Celebrex with Monsanto. Monsanto shares fell 11/16 to 45-1/8 and Pfizer shares fell 6-1/8, to 125-1/4 in New York Stock Exchange trade Tuesday, a day the Dow Jones Industrials lost 1.70 percent falling 158.08 to 9133.03.