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Biotech / Medical : Munch-a-Biotech Today -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (397)	6/1/1999 7:53:00 PM
From: Pseudo Biologist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3158

Very impressive data for sure. Hu5c8 is also known as Antova (Biogen). Perhaps most interesting is the observation that adding "traditional" immunosuppressive therapy (steroids, FK506, etc) to the extended treatment with hu5c8 actually makes things worse. As Polly M. says in the commentary piece "If the promise of signal Two blockers holds up, the days of signal One blockers are numbered, and short." Traditional therapies are believed to block signal One, while 5c8 (and the IDEC antibody, for example) appear to block signal Two. BUT, this is what most likely got IDPH moving today: <<Idec Shares Rise as Cancer Drug Sales Seen Beating Estimates San Diego, June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp. shares soared 15 percent amid expectations second-quarter sales of the biotechnology company's cancer drug Rituxan will beat analysts estimates. Idec shares rose 7 9/16 to 58 in trading of 1.04 million, more than twice the three-month daily average. It was the stock's biggest one-day percentage gain in six weeks. Shares in Idec have almost tripled since October as sales of its Rituxan treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma beat company and analyst forecasts. IMS Health Inc., a company that provides data on drugs sales, will release data on Rituxan's sales in April that some analysts say they expect will beat forecasts. ''People are definitely starting to focus on Rituxan sales again,'' said Lehman Brothers biotechnology analyst Eric Ende. ''The number is expected to be pretty strong.'' Rituxan, which was introduced in October 1997, last year had sales of $162.6 million. That's a record for a cancer treatment in its first year on the market. Ende forecasts 1999 Rituxan sales of $242 million and he expects them to peak at about $700 million.>>> PB