Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc fka ARIA

[oldchemist4]

CELG - a good company whose stock I have never owned. I remember them as a biocatalysis outfit in the late 1980s. They have certainly proven they are very very good at business over the years, and are willing to "follow their technology" to where it tells you to go, unlike many.

They took thalidomide (back) into the market - very gutsy, so they certainly have the experience to get drugs on the market with horrific AEs in the wrong patient population (i.e. pregnant women) but great benefit otherwise to relatively small populations. And they took over Abraxis and Abraxane, but I don't know what the financials were for that. I also don't know what happened to the folks at Abraxis after the takeover, but my recollection is that all Abraxis had was the formulation technology for Abraxane anyway - bit of a one trick pony, at least as I remember. But again, paclitaxel is not without its own AEs, so CELG has more experience there with both dosing and delivery of that (very cytotoxic) drug.

CELG could certainly mount a $15/share ($3BB cap) for ARIA, so - yes - my gut says this is a realistic scenario, and one I'd certainly like to see one morning.

But as I always say, my advice is worth just what you paid for it!