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Non-Tech : Bill Wexler's Dog Pound -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Bill Wexler who wrote (987)5/10/1999 11:02:00 PM
From: dave stahly  Respond to of 10293
 
Interesting article in Indy paper tonight:

Microcap stocks: These are tiny companies, usually traded on NASDAQ or the OTC Bulletin Board. Some are legitimate businesses trying to make it big. Others are pure hype.

So www.stockdetective.com tries to separate the two. Its department of Stinky Stocks beats up on firms that seem to be making inflated claims. Its Red Light District hauls in stocks for questioning.

My favorite Stock Detective page is called The List. It names 89 websites, online newsletters, radio shows and print publications that look like unbiased sources of investment opinion, but aren't, according to the site's editor, Kevin Lichtman.

They're advertising rags, he says, that charge companies $ 5,000 to $500,000 for featuring their stocks. Often, they take their pay in shares, which they can sell, or scalp, if their recommendations drive the stock up.

It's legal to praise stocks for pay, but the deal is supposed to be disclosed. Last October, the SEC brought charges against 44 online stock promoters for nondisclosure, scalping and making false claims.

Dave in Indy



To: Bill Wexler who wrote (987)5/10/1999 11:35:00 PM
From: gringodoc  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 10293
 
Joe Podolski's presentation at BT Alex. Brown Health Care Conference today.

I had the privilege this afternoon at 5:30 to hear Joe P. put a master spin on today's debacle.

There was a brief summary of today's news followed by the canned roadshow presentation followed by a brief q&a. I'm going to try to recount the comments from my hastily scratched notes; there may be a few minor errors, especially with some of the dollar amts...

''''''''''''''

THE SPIN

Joe P. was completely deferential to Schering (SGP). He stated that ZONA had the option to go to the FDA panel. This panel, he said, was the urology panel, one different from the one that Pfizer faced with Viagra, and a panel that in the past has approved only injectables for ED.

The choice apparently was to go to the panel, and, if rejected, face a year's wait before resubmission would be allowed versus accepting a non-acceptance of the NDA and be permitted to addend it in the future.

Joe P. stated that the FDA would not find ZONA's "pinnacle" 2 year long 2000 patient "open label" study acceptable for several reasons. The problems that he identified were that the study wasn't placebo controlled and that "end points" used were not going to be acceptable.

Joe P. stated that SGP was willing to support ZONA with whatever their decision was but that they strongly recommended putting off the panel appearance until they had more data available. SGP felt that the endpoints in the data that had been submitted to the FDA were NOT comparable to viagra's data.

Joe P. when asked about Zona's relationship NOW to SGP said "I think that it's stronger than ever". "Vasomax is now firmly entrenched as a Schering product." SGP is now doing all the manufacturing and conducting all the clinical trials. They are bearing 100% of the Vasomax costs in persuing the NDA and NOT using a CRO.

Numerous times he said, "Hey these are Schering's recommendations and who are we not to listen. Who has more experience going before the FDA? Who did the brilliant marketing for Claritin? If Schering says we don't have the data to win market share against Viagra, we better listen."

He defended to oft mentioned and questioned 69% efficacy rate as being accurate but was not clear whether the rate included dropouts.

Schering has already begun enrollment of new trials. These will be 12 week trials comparable to Pfizer's 12 week Viagra trials and draw efficacy and safety data from these trials. Joe P. implied that SGP wants to toss out the open label trial data.

Apparantly Schering will complete the trials and send to data to Zonagen for NDA amendment to FDA. The target date will be in December or January with hopes of a panel appearance in March or June 2000.
''''''''''''''''

The Q&A was a softball session. Joe P. knew most of the questioners by first name.

When asked to comment on Mexican sales, he replied that the IMS data are of poor quality. He claimed that Mexican approval was based on Mexican data and that Schering could not use those data to adequately market against Viagra. He said something like "Hey if you were Schering, would use expend a lot of money in this scenario for a battle you couldn't win?"

(Jesse Eisenger in his TSC article on Feb 24 pointed out that in the fourth quarter of 1998, Zonagen rebated $4K of Mexican royalties back to SGP.)

Finally, Mr. P stated to date that Zonagen has received $20mm of the $57mm milestone payment package from SGP.

'''''''''''''''''''
The canned part discussed ZONA's "pipeline" and "research".

Zonagen is working on three products:

>>Vasofem: phentolamine for enhancement of female sexual response with trials planned for both oral and vaginal cream preps

>>Bimexes: oral combo drug for ed

>>ERxin: injectable Rx for ED

Of note is the fact that clinical trials for Bimexes and ERxin will occur in Mexico. Also the planned studies will pit the former against Viagra and the latter against Caverject. (Buena suerte, Zona!)

'''''''''''''''''''''

And let's not forget some great press in the past year:

Fortune Magazine:
pathfinder.com

The Houston Press:
houston-press.com

houston-press.com

TheStreet.com:
thestreet.com

www3.techstocks.com.

thestreet.com

thestreet.com

Manuel Asensio:
asensio.com



To: Bill Wexler who wrote (987)5/10/1999 11:42:00 PM
From: golden_tee   Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10293
 
<<Valence is simply a stock fraud with no manufacturing capability.>>
That statement is insane. They have a facility in Northern Ireland that has capacity that is unparalled in the LiPoly industry. You know this.
<<They've been promising batteries for years. Even if they maanged by some miracle to produce anything, the company would still remain grossly overvalued.>>
Ahh, the doubt is beginning to show.
<<Valence has no lock on lithium-polymer technology and their patent portfolio is worthless.>>
Sure, discount those 400+ patents, they are surely worthless. How many frauds have 400 patents on their technology at a cost of about $15K/per or $6+M? Not to mention international filing costs of about $30k/per.
<<Delphi and everready terminated their agreements with Valence long ago.>>
Spelling aside, both of these companies are currently commercializing VLNC batteries. Read the press releases, SEC filings, etc. of all 3 companies. You are posting verifiable lies wexler. Wise up, VLNC is your next CPU, but the losses will be much greater!