Biotech Values

[jq1234]

and the company's hiding of data so continuous

I would be careful of accusing someone hiding data. Here is transcript:

Ryan Martins - Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Research Division
Ok and, just a follow-up on that, the bilirubin increases you talked about, was that in the ASH update and...

Stephen M. Kelsey - Chief Medical Officer, Head of R & D and Executive Vice President
Well, we -- here's the issue. The reason we're doing this is because when we presented the data in December at ASH, we basically had to get the data, the pertinent data into 12 slides, and we focused largely on the efficacy data, the clinical responses, the molecular responses. I think we had 2 slides on safety, and I don't think that the 2 slides that we presented on safety did full justice to the clinical picture. We did present at ASH that there were rises in alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase. And what we did -- what we have not observed at the time of the ASH meeting, and I think where your -- just to really get to the meat of your question, what we have not observed at the time of the ASH presentation were the increases in alkaline phosphatase that have been observed with chronic dosing.

Ryan Martins - Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Research Division
Okay. And were any of these patients qualified to be under Hy's Law?

Stephen M. Kelsey - Chief Medical Officer, Head of R & D and Executive Vice President
Sorry, can you repeat the question?

Ryan Martins - Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Research Division
So were any of these patients Hy's Law patients as a result?

Stephen M. Kelsey - Chief Medical Officer, Head of R & D and Executive Vice President
No, no. No, none of them fulfill the criteria for Hy's Law or really meet any criteria for hepatocellular damage. There were 2 distinct clinical pictures. The immediate rises in alanine transaminase appear to be self-limiting and have been observed with drugs where there is some sort of compensation that occurs with continued dosing, and the alanine transaminase tends to resolve. I've really no idea what the rises in alkaline phosphatase are due to. We were initially concerned because they were associated with an increase in bilirubin. But it turns out that the increase in the bilirubin is almost all unconjugated bilirubin, and that is not consistent with a clinical picture of cotastasis [ph]. And so we need to spend a lot more time digging that out.

you can understand the nervousness of stock raters

I understand the overall negative sentiment after the conference call. As of that particular stock rater's nervousness, well, for crying out loud, he just upgraded PPHM. So his negative rating was the contra-indicator to me.