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Biotech / Medical : Cistron Biotechnology(CIST)$.30 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Walter Morton who wrote (1924)	2/24/1999 9:39:00 AM
From: Rudy Saucillo	Respond to of 2742

Walter, My thoughts are in line with JohnM's thinking. That is, I believe the company is more attractive as a merger or buyout candidate now that they've removed potentially unappealing elements which are not part of their core strategic plan. As they announced in their recent 10-Q and other SEC filings, they want to become a therapeutics company. The PMC deal is arguably a reasonable start. The reagents business was not being developed and became a drag on the company - continued declining sales quarter after quarter for several years. Prior to the outlicensing of the reagents business, any company interested in CIST for IL-1 therapeutic potential would have to deal with this poor-performing part of the company. Not exactly a good selling point. I think the deal was good for Techne and reasonable for CIST. Techne will likely do well with their IL-1 products and CIST gets a portion of sales. Obviously, this is a business plan in progress. The next step will be very significant. They do appear to be setting themselves up for a buyout. Rudy