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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SEAN007 who wrote (10860)	2/12/1999 8:36:00 AM
From: xbrent	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122088

I tried to short ENMD about five times yesterday. No shorts available.

To: SEAN007 who wrote (10860)	2/12/1999 8:59:00 AM
From: Doorman	Respond to of 122088

Today's WSJ: (skeptical tone) he Wall Street Journal -- February 12, 1999 Health: EntreMed Reverses Midweek Stock Loss As NCI Verifies an Anti-Tumor Agent ---- By Ralph T. King Jr. Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal EntreMed Inc.'s stock reversed sharp losses from earlier in the week on yet another piece of cancer-related news, a positive finding on one of its controversial antitumor agents about which some scientists remain skeptical. National Cancer Institute officials said they were able to verify that one of EntreMed's two anticancer agents, endostatin, showed some activity against tumors in laboratory mice, indicating the agent still holds experimental promise. Endostatin and another agent, angiostatin, generated excitement last year after EntreMed's partner, Harvard researcher Judah Folkman, reported that the two agents in combination wiped out mouse tumors. In recent months, the work has been questioned because scientists, including Dr. Folkman's collaborators at NCI, had trouble replicating his lab's work. Just Tuesday, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which licensed angiostatin from EntreMed, announced that it would halt development of the agent after three years of work. EntreMed's stock doubled yesterday, closing at $25.6875, up $12.8125, in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The small Rockville, Md., biotechnology company's stock lost about half its value Wednesday, closing at $12.875, down $11.625, following the Bristol-Myers announcement. Whether the two agents can eradicate tumors not just in mice but in humans is still open to question. And some scientists say that confirmation in someone else's lab doesn't amount to verificiation. "Independent confirmation of Folkman would be very exciting; however, these results don't qualify as such," said George Yancopoulos, chief scientific officer at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., an expert in the blood-vessel field. "What worries me is that several years after the discovery of endostatin, there is still no explanation for how it works. It's still black magic," Dr. Yancopoulos added. In any case, NCI officials said they are now seeking investigators to begin human safety trials of endostatin before the end of the year. And an EntreMed spokeswoman said the company will seek regulatory approval for trials of angiostatin during the fourth quarter. The seemingly contradictory events involving Dr. Folkman's work illustrate the twists and turns of verifying scientific data and translating them into medical advances. While encouraged, Robert Wittes, NCI deputy director of extramural science, said, "We have to make sure it's synthesizable outside Boston," where Dr. Folkman's lab is located. He also warned that important toxicology and production issues must be resolved by EntreMed before endostatin can enter human trials. After observing the methods of lab workers first-hand, NCI scientists were able to perform the same detailed technical steps and achieve shrinkage of small tumors in treated mice, Dr. Wittes said. NCI scientists hope to obtain the same results in their own labs in Frederick, Md., in the near future under the direction of researchers from Dr. Folkman's lab. "There are 25 possibilities of what we may have been doing wrong. This protein is very touchy," Dr. Wittes said. "We don't think we swept away all the questions, but we think the essence of what they reported is right."