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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andreas Samson who wrote (18934)	2/19/1999 4:05:00 AM
From: VLAD	Respond to of 23519

<<what do you think>> I think we are pissing in the wind if we try to read to much into this statement one way or another. Assume that Vivus really wants to partner with Astra because they already have a relationship and it would be a good fit for an eventual merger/buy out but because of the Zeneca merger Astra is unable to sign a partnership at this time along the terms Vivus believes are attainable. What does Vivus do? Either nothing or continue negotiating to see if something better comes up while all the Astra-Zeneca merger business proceeds forward. Seems logical to me. There are a whole bunch of factors that can complicate negotiations such as future rights to Alibra, rights to Japan, and the fact that two international partnerships are already in place. The fact that Astra already has a deal in place and is known to be looking for both new product lines in the United States along with merger candidates IMO makes Astra appear to be the best fit for a partner for both parties. Other companies already in the ED field are actively pursuing buy out candidates with UpJohn at the top of the list. I see a lot of these big pharma's pouring tens of millions of dollars into tiny biotech companies with products of uncertain futures. Here is an example of a small biotech company that is pure R&D and has never turned a profit that UpJohn has been sinking tons of $$$ into just on one product line: biz.yahoo.com I've been following Miravant since about the time I started watching Vivus (October '97) and have watched it go from $70/share to $4/share in less than a year. When you see the tons of money these large pharmaceuticals are willing to dump into many of these small biotech companies that have untested and unproven technologies/products it makes it hard to justify a Vivus at $2/share.

To: Andreas Samson who wrote (18934)	2/19/1999 1:47:00 PM
From: 777 Captain	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 23519

Andreas: If Astra was really interested in VVUS, they could put a deal together and fund it out of petty cash. Without some milestone payments, I'm expecting things to get sorta tight cash wise. It will be interesting to see if anybody "bellies up." I see absolutely, positively, no reason whatsoever for anybody to be in a hurry. If Astra is achieving some success with sales of MUSE, then I would expect them to ensure the success of VVUS. It would be in their best interests to do so. Just wish I had a better handle on what is really transpiring, if anything. I'm banking on a partnership/sale that will take VVUS to 5.00 - 7.50/share over the next six months. Anything higher than that will be icing on the cake, and odds are, I won't be hanging around long enough to see it. Regards.