Replies to post #71794 on Biotech Values

[ghmm]

PPS: one recommendation to improve the board is to have a sticky thread inviting former respected posters back to the board (rfj, gofish, etc...perhaps even unban io if he promises to behave;)

I agree I still have gofish as a people mark even though I forgot why :-)

[iwfal]

whether or not an SVR is as meaningful a predictor of long-term suppression without interferon will definitely need to be studied when non-inf regimens are studied. from a clinical and regulatory perspective though SVR is likely to remain the gold standard for efficacy and approval

1) Agree that SVR is likely to remain the standard - but see note #2

2) I suspect that the relapse rate after completion of therapy will be much higher. E.g. if ifn therapy gets 55% undetectable virus after 6 months of therapy and 15% relapse in the succeeding 6 months to get a 40% SVR then I suspect that anti-viral cocktails might get 95% undetectable after therapy but 40% relapse rate. Thus the early anti-viral cocktail data is interesting - but what I will find interesting is the long term followup.

Note - All of the above numbers are complete WAGs - and represent a position taken partly (and overassertively) to prevent complacency. But my point remains the same. There is a lot of 'common knowledge' in the HCV world that I find suspect - e.g. it is commonly accepted that HCV doesn't hide like HIV after a 'cure', but there is enough data out there to indicate this is probably not true.

[DewDiligence]

Re: Former regular posters

…one recommendation to improve the board is to have a sticky thread inviting former respected posters back to the board (rfj, gofish, etc...perhaps even unban io_io if he promises to behave;)

iHub provides only three “sticky” posts per board, and I like to use these slots for the various tables and calendars maintained by this board.

After gofish stopped posting regularly in 2007, I sent him a PM asking if he was OK. He said he was fine and was enjoying life more while posting less! He also made an astute “macro” call, saying that he was inclined to bow out from biotech and focus on preservation of capital until the inevitable recession had come and gone.

io_io was banned from this board in 2006 for making an excessive number of personal attacks. (In one instance, io_io accused me of concocting a story that my (then) 99-year-old father broke his hip on February 8, 2006 to cover for the fact that I was actually helping a hedge fund manipulate the share price of GTCB.) I’ve had io_io on Ignore since late 2007, but I gather from the comments made by others that little has changed since then. (For instance, #msg-33062645.)

rfj1862 posted on the Biotech Values board as recently as Sep 2008, although he’s not the regular poster he once was. A couple of years ago, he stated his intention to attend medical school, although I don’t know if this came to fruition.