Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Biotechnology Cancer Cures -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike McFarland who wrote (3)	4/10/1999 8:09:00 PM
From: chalu2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 226

My view is that the anti-angiogenesis stocks have the greatest blockbuster potential. My favorite among them is Imclone (IMCL). Big move up lately, and much to go. JMHO.

To: Mike McFarland who wrote (3)	4/11/1999 9:54:00 PM
From: Mike McFarland	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 226

Well here is what I've scrounged up so far on Isis. I'll wont say much about 2302, and Isis' Vitravene, since this is a thread for Cancer related stuff. Oh, I will say that although I only went through the March biofind chat, there was a point made about 2302 (the ICAM-1 inhibitor I think it is) and it stuck in my head-- (hehe, stuck...) 2302 is going up against an awful lot of MAb's, I think the antibodies have a sizeable lead, but just my gut reaction, this is biotech investing 101, freshman year, second day of class:-) From what I can tell Vitravene is NOT what you would call a wildly successful drug--and somebody thought that might have played a role in the Cowen downgrade. Isis is into antisense and as aquired some IP in antisense from a couple other companies in the last year. It is trading at a fairly large multiple to book value, especially when you consider the firesale that is goint on elsewhere in the sector--so if you're like me (lost in a sea of cheap biotechs, and mostly trying to avoid the landmines) you might want to avoid this one. On the other hand, I gauged sentiment from the thread here on SI and the Yahoo! ISIP thread, it is decidedly negative--or at least the enthusiasm over antisense has been knocked out of the crowd--that is often not a bad time to at least get your first "third" if you like something, the chart does not seem to be dropping anymore. That said, you can almost always wait a day, watch the chart, and pay what you one on these lately, part of the sector being ignored is that if any fund wants to dump some shares, whooof! I'd say there is good evidence that the company will not do a death spiral type of financing, the letter from the CEO on their website is reassuring--so maybe it will be debt or something. What it really looks like to me is as if Isis has some interesting leads, and they need the cash to get them far enough along to attract partners--it was pointed out however that maybe the company wants to have the cash secured so it can deal from a position of strength while they try to attract a partner for one of their compounds. Okay, let's see what looks interesting of late... In the aacr abstracts, Isis shows they have a Ras antisense oligonucleotide -- ISIS 2503. Blocks ras signaling in mammalian cells. They ahve a second generation antisense oligonucleotide -- ISIS 16009 which is being investigated in vitro against leukaemia cell lines From another abstract I found something about reduction in mouse liver Bcl-x mRNA levels following intraperitoneal administration of ISIS 15999 and ISIS 16009. They had a bit about radiotherapeutic efficacy and a antisense raf oligodeoxyribonucleotide -- ISIS 5132 There is a broad sounding abstract about ASO's and various cell signaling molecules, seems like very early stuff to me, but who knows how much is hidden from web surfers versus how much they give out at these meetings. There were two more abstracts which were more specific and since it might as well have been written in greek, I wont say anything here about those two. My first little dip in the pool, and mainly I want to just come back when the water is a little warmer--maybe in May I will be interested, especially if this one is down some more in price in a few weeks. --Mike