Cougar Biotechnology (CGRB)

[gfp927z]

Cougar Biotechnology - Feuerstein mentioned them recently (see article excerpt below) and I thought they looked interesting. They had a presentation at the CIBC Investor Conference in April, which is still available for replay. I was skeptical at first of the CEO (he was previously a biotech stock analyst), but I thought his CIBC presentation was impressive. They appear to have a capable management team, with their new regulatory affairs guy coming from Amgen (was involved with PMab). The company just raised $50 mil. The stock is on the bulletin board but trades in the low-mid $20s, and apparently they'll be going onto a larger exchange at some point. I see that Lindsay Rosenwald is on the BOD, though I'm not sure of the extent of his involvement with the company. I think he holds some warrants from a prior financing.

Anyway, I'd be curious to hear opinions on the company's prospects. Their lead program looks very interesting - CB-7630, an inhibitor of the 17-alpha hydroxylase/C17,20 lysase enzyme, in Phase 2 for prostate cancer. They also have CB-3304, an inhibitor of tubulin dynamics, in phase 1 for hemotological malignancies, and CB-1089, an analog of Vitamin D, tested in various solid tumors. The CIBC presentation is well worth hearing, and the slides provide a good overview -


>>> Feuerstein's Biotech-Stock Mailbag
By Adam Feuerstein
Senior Writer
5/5/2007 10:36 AM EDT
URL: http://www.thestreet.com/newsanalysis/biotech/10354681.html

It's Saturday, which means the Biotech-Stock Mailbag has returned. Responding to your emails brings me great joy, so keep those letters coming.

... Martin M. chimes in about Cougar Biotechnology (CGRB) :

Cougar has a very promising prostate cancer drug that looks interesting. Abiraterone is an oral, irreversible CYP450c17 enzyme inhibitor that appears to have activity in post-docetaxel, castration refractory prostate cancer patients. It is safe ... and has shown some dramatic effects on PSA levels in later stage prostate cancer patients. The company is super small (20 employees) but its presentation generated a lot of buzz at the [April 15-18 American Association for Cancer Research] meeting. Another Dendreon perhaps?

Does everyone understand that? You think Martin has a science background? I agree with him. I'm also excited about Cougar and its prostate cancer drug abiraterone.

What I'm not so hot on right now is the fact that Cougar trades on the bulletin boards and is, therefore, very illiquid. I'm told the company has plans to list on a more traditional stock exchange soon, which should take care of the liquidity issue. Whether all the hedge funds that currently own the stock decide to use that new liquidity to cash out remains to be seen. Just be careful.

But let's talk about abiraterone in more simple language. The drug inhibits testosterone production with the potential to drop androgen levels below "castration" levels even in patients who no longer respond to current androgen-deprivation therapy.

A quick reminder: Prostate cancer feeds off of testosterone, so prostate cancer patients are treated with hormone therapy to block the production of testosterone and keep their cancer in remission. This can be an effective therapy for a long time, but eventually, the prostate cancer cells become "independent" of hormone therapy and start growing again.

As it stands now, doctors do have some drugs to use when their prostate cancer patients stop responding to initial hormone therapy. (This is before patients are treated with chemotherapy.) Early data suggests that abiraterone might be a better drug in this setting, which represents a sizeable commercial market opportunity.

There are also early data to suggest that abiraterone can be effective for prostate cancer patients on chemotherapy, specifically as a second-line treatment once first-line drugs like Taxotere are no longer working. This is a smaller market, but one that probably has a quicker route to approval.

So, yes, Martin is right. Cougar might be another Dendreon. In fact, depending on how abiraterone is used, it might impinge on Provenge's market opportunity. Then again, it might not. Regardless, I think Cougar is a cancer stock worth keeping on your radar screen, especially once it moves to a larger exchange. <<<