BTECH NEWS - BIOTECH INTEREST HIGH AT THE JP MORGAN H&Q HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE
Judging from the packed presentations of many biotech companies at this week
's 20th annual JP Morgan H&Q Healthcare conference in San Francisco, 2002
will be another exciting year for biotechnology. While much of the news of
the week was overshadowed by the controversy about ImClone's (NASDAQ:
IMCL) Erbitux, the conference and related releases did produce a significant
amount of biotech news.
The biggest news coming from the conference was continued confirmation that
monoclonal antibodies will be the largest biotech trend for 2002. Even
Erbitux, ImClone's anti-cancer monoclonal antibody, supported this trend.
While the FDA and investors questioned the trial design and documentation,
no one questioned the efficacy of the drug. The three big human monoclonal
antibody players all had good news: Abgenix (NASDAQ: ABGX) used the conference to announce that it had submitted an Investigational New Drug
application to begin phase I trials of ABX-MA1 in metastatic cancer. Abgenix
also announced that it had initiated phase II trials of ABX-EGF, in combination with chemotherapy, for colorectal cancer. (ImClone has stated
that its Erbitux patents cover the use of all monoclonal antibody EGF inhibitors used in combination with chemotherapy to treat cancer, so legal
action between ImClone and Abgenix is likely.) Abgenix also reaffirmed its
previous projection that it will bring at least two new monoclonal antibodies into clinical trials per year starting this year. Cambridge
Antibody Technologies (NASDAQ: CATG) announced that both Immunex (NASDAQ:
IMMX) and Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) had each exercised options to
develop monoclonal antibodies developed for them by Cambridge Antibody Technologies. Medarex (NASDAQ: MEDX) announced expansion of its cancer
vaccine program as well as new or expanded collaborations with several companies.
Another trend discussed by many participants was the renewed interest in
"platform technology" companies such as Human Genome Sciences, Millennium
(NASDAQ: MLNM), and Affymetrix (NASDAQ: AFFX). Companies that use novel technologies, particularly genomics technologies, to help pharma and biotech
partners jump start the drug discovery process were hit hard in 2001 as investors realized that drugs resulting from these platforms were years
away. Many people at the meeting felt that the pendulum had swung too far in
the opposite direction after the euphoria over the human genome project died
down, and that money will flow back into these companies. Human Genome Sciences
(HGS) announced at the meeting that it will partner at least one of its internal drug programs. HGS has been a pace setter for biotech / pharma
partnerships, and the details of this expected deal should be a good indication of the value placed on genomics derived drugs. A technology
platform that is likely to attract more attention in 2002 is structural genomics, the use of information about protein structure to design drugs.
Structural genomics leader Vertex (NASDAQ: VRTX) announced that VX-799, a
small molecule caspase inhibitor, had advanced into preclinical trials for
sepsis. Additionally, Millennium announced that it would make a substantial
research effort in structural genomics.
More mergers and acquisitions that seek to integrate the drug discovery process are expected between biotech companies. The biotech industry is also
likely to see increased acquisitions of companies that have one successful
drug on the market. Executives from Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Millennium gave
support to this trend by providing or reaffirming positive data or projections for their proposed acquisitions of Immunex and Cor Therapeutics,
respectively. Millennium announced that it expected Cor's sales of Integrilin to grow 30% to $300 million in 2002, and Amgen projected that
sales of Immunex's Enbrel will climb to $1.6 billion by 2003.
BTECH NEWS
by Leon Henderson, M.D.
Bennett Weintraub, Ph.D.
Christopher Martin
www.btechnews.com
January 11, 2002
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BTECH NEWS, published by Btech Investor, Inc., highlights selected events in
the life sciences sector that the Btech Investor team believes are particularly relevant to biotechnology investors. The Btech Investor team
combines scientific, clinical, and business experience to perform comprehensive analysis of the biotechnology industry and to identify future
industry leaders.
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