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Biotech / Medical : CNSI Cambridge Neuroscience -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: limit who wrote (513)	5/16/1999 2:50:00 PM
From: Mike McFarland	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 675

No sweat. Although the annual report has been on Edgar for six weeks, I usually don't get around to reading stuff til I have the nice print copy. Now that I've actually read the thing, I guess I might as well shift the focus from GGF2 to the ion-channel program--here are the relevant quotes: While Bayer will continue the clinical development of GGF2, the Company expects that its research activity in the protein growth factor area will decline to a low level when GGF2 enters the clinic. The Company also has an option to license technology related to Cerebellum Derived Growth Factor (also known as Neuregulin 2) from Harvard University. The technology licensed from Harvard University will in all likelihood receive a low level of support until a corporate partner is identified. With the out-licensing of GDF-1 to CBMI and the commencement of a collaboration agreement with Bayer for GGF2, the Company's drug discovery and development efforts will focus more on its ion-channel blocker programs and less in the area of protein growth factors. So here is that list again: " The Company's assets in its ion-channel blockers program include: * Aptiganel, a treatment to limit the extent of brain damage in stroke and other forms of acute brain ischemia; * a collaboration funded by Allergan for the discovery of an ion-channel blocker to treat ophthalmic disorders, including glaucoma; * CNS 5161, a drug candidate which has completed two Phase I clinical trials, including one trial in a pain model, for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain and, possibly, certain chronic neurodegenerative disorders; * a drug discovery project in potassium channel blockers for neuropathies, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury; * a patent portfolio, including 37 issued US patents and 30 pending US patent applications plus corresponding foreign patents or applications; * an ion-channel focused chemical library of approximately 2,000 molecules, containing compounds designed to alter the activity of NMDA, sodium or potassium channels; and, * CNS 1261, a SPECT-imaging agent (a research tool) currently in clinical trials for visualizing activated NMDA ion channels in the human brain. As mentioned above, in brain and spinal cord ischemia, over-stimulation of glutamate-activated NMDA ion channels is primarily responsible for flooding nerve cells with calcium ions, which results in cell death. The Company is developing ion-channel blockers to selectively block the NMDA ion channel and limit nerve cell death during acute cerebral ischemia as treatments for stroke and other acute injuries to the nervous system." With the company down to a skeleton crew of 17 full time employees as of 3/31 (same as at the end of last year), I have to say, it seems a little silly to be voting my 22,000 shares to vote in six directors for another year: ~A million bucks seems like a lot of money when you look at the state the company is in right now. Oh, they're lean and mean for sure, maybe a good candidate for a buy-out, but probably not large enough to exist very long as a viable R&D outfit. (?) Just my thoughts, any other thoughts out there? I think my $5 Bayer buy-out a few years from now looks a bit silly. Seems like a more likely suitor would be a company interested in the ion-channel stuff, and that has probably been said before on the thread. Also, the current executive officers and directors own 17.5% of the shares--but Burkhard Blank (Boehringer Ingelheim) is most of that. He sits on the Isis board as well, here is the url for his profile isip.com