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Biotech / Medical : Biogen -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (883)	2/26/1999 12:54:00 PM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1686

***OT*** >Yeah, but, but, but..... what the hell happens on rechallenge after a rest of, say, 21 days or more??????? Arrrrrgh..... been waiting to see chimeric versus humanized compared in monkeys ... rhesus pieces? i hear that's a delicacy in parts of south asia. well, the brains, anyway. sorry.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (883)	3/1/1999 3:45:00 PM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Respond to of 1686

c'est la vie ... ----- Biogen's Former CEO Tobin Sold Stake in Company After Leaving Cambridge, Massachusetts, Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Jim Tobin sold his entire stake in Biogen Inc. after resigning as chief executive over problems working with the biotechnology company's chairman, James Vincent. Tobin, 54, said he sold his 719,000 shares in the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company over the past month or so. At the stock's average price of 93 3/4 over the past 30 days, the sale would have given him about $67 million. After spending the past few months skiing, Tobin said he's decided to retire and focus on activities he's long wanted to try -- like learning to fly an airplane. ''The day the money hit the bank, retirement seemed like a pretty good option,'' Tobin said in an interview. Tobin decided to leave Biogen after he complained to the company's board of directors about problems working with his boss and told them he'd leave if Vincent didn't. The board picked Vincent, who had preceded Tobin as the company's CEO, and announced the departure a few days before Christmas. Tobin said he didn't sell his stake in Biogen, maker of the multiple sclerosis treatment Avonex, because of any clouds on the horizon. ''I think Biogen's in great shape. Obviously things are going pretty well,'' Tobin said. ''I just don't think it's really appropriate for me to be a large shareholder in a company that I left.'' During Tobin's five years of leadership, Biogen's multiple sclerosis drug Avonex became a blockbuster whose strong sales helped its shares more than double last year as it reported record earnings. Though he left the company a rich man, he had a chance to make a lot more money if he had stayed. When Tobin quit his post, he lost rights to yet-to-be-vested options on about 700,000 Biogen shares for $35 apiece. The stock rose 4 3/8 to 97 3/4 today, giving those options a value of about $44 million. Tobin's resignation from Biogen wasn't the first time he has abruptly left a top post at a major medical company. Five years ago, Tobin quit as president, chief operating officer and board member of Baxter International Inc., 21 years after joining the nation's largest maker of medical supplies. At the time, Tobin said he was ''looking for a new challenge'' after starting a restructuring of the troubled company. He said he also sold his Baxter shares after that departure.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (883)	6/3/1999 8:55:00 AM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1686

richard. a blurb on your rhesus pieces ... -chris. ----- New drug helps in diabetes cell transplant June 2, 1999 05:51 PM By Jim Loney MIAMI, June 2 (Reuters) - A new genetically engineered drug shows promise in preventing the rejection of transplanted insulin-producing cells, a potentially important early step toward a cure for diabetes, researchers said on Wednesday. In a study at the University of Miami's Diabetes Research Institute, six diabetic monkeys given the drug, called anti-CD154, along with a transplant of insulin-producing pancreatic cells, became insulin independent. The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the near future, could be a key development for diabetes patients who need regular insulin injections, researchers said. "As a transplant immunologist, it's one of the most exciting developments I've seen in 20 years," University of Miami researcher Dr. Norma Kenyon, the study's author, said at a news conference. "As the mother of a child with diabetes, I don't want to raise false hopes. It's a key step forward. We're not there yet." The immune systems of diabetics destroy cells that produce insulin. As a result, they must constantly monitor blood sugar levels and take regular injections of insulin. Diabetes affects 15.7 million people in the United States, nearly 6 percent of the population, according to the American Diabetes Association. It is the seventh-leading cause of death and has no cure. It is a leading cause of blindness and kidney failure, and its victims are up to four times more likely to suffer heart disease or a stroke, the ADA said. The study showed for the first time that insulin-producing cells, or islets, taken from a donor's pancreas, can be transplanted into monkeys without being destroyed by their bodies and apparently without side effects, effectively freeing the animals from their dependence on insulin. "If we can get insulin-producing cells transplanted and take up their normal biological function without rejection and without the toxic side effects currently associated with conventional drugs, then it would represent a cure for diabetes," Kenyon said. Anti-CD154, an immune system modulator and one of a new generation of genetically engineered drugs, interferes with the early stages of the immune system's reaction to the transplant, but does not have an adverse effect on the insulin-producing cells, researchers said. Three of the six monkeys remained insulin-independent for a year without evidence of toxic side effects normally seen in anti-rejection drugs. Clinical trials with the drug, manufactured by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen Inc. (BGEN), were expected to start soon at the University of Miami, hospital officials said.