Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc (IPIX)

[slcimmuno]

Thought the PR was solid. View it as a placeholder for bigger News to come, maybe as early as first part of April.

Came across brief mention of the Regeneron story ($451), about taking the Long view, resonated with how Leo and Menon seem to be proceeding. We're still in the first few innings as others have noted -- having already scored a few runs I might add (our impressive pipeline, trials progress to date, etc).

http://www.xconomy.com/new-york/2015/03/16/six-takeaways-from-new-yorks-life-science-disruptors/2/

EXCERPT

6. Unique to Regeneron? Its original employees stayed the course.

Biopharma is a long game. It usually takes a decade or more, and billions of dollars, to get a drug from inception to the finish line. As a result, the folks that found biotech companies and the executives that first lead them typically aren’t around when that biotech’s drug hits the market. Biotech CEOs are often switched out, for instance, when a company moves from discovery to clinical development, or intends to take itself public.

That hasn’t been the case with Regeneron. “You hear a lot about starting with the science, starting with discoveries, developing technologies, and bringing new medicines to people that make a difference. How many people do you think in the entire industry have actually done that at a company?” Yancopoulos asked the crowd, before answering, “About 20.”

“How many people like that do you think exist at Regeneron?” he followed. “About 20. And those 20 people are now the most senior leading people at the company.”

Xxxxx

Also came across this tidbit on small molecules still being the sweet spot in drug successes - think B, K, P.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-16/want-to-discover-new-miracle-drugs-you-have-to-get-lucky

EXCERPT

Since the 1980s, identifying drug targets based on molecular research has been the dominant mode of drug development. But when Swinney and Anthony examined the origins of the 75 “first-in-class” drugs (breakthroughs, essentially) approved by the FDA from 1999 through 2008, a surprisingly high percentage turned out to have been developed using “phenotypic” chemistry techniques that predate the genetic revolution.

The results were most dramatic when they focused on “small-molecule” drugs, which can be ingested as pills and are relatively easy to manufacture. Of the 50 small-molecule first-in-class drugs that were approved, 25 were developed using phenotypic methods, which as best I can understand involve ***synthesizing chemical compounds and testing them on bacteria, bugs, animals and eventually people to see what they do.*** Seventeen came out of target-based research; another five involved synthesizing natural substances. “Eighty percent of the resources are devoted to target-based discovery,” Swinney said when I talked to him last week, “but despite that the phenotypic methods gave us a large percentage of the first-in-class medicines.”