>> Leukemia Drug Will Advance Millennium Pharma to New Stage
December 21, 2000
I've always liked Millennium, not because it is a genomics company, but it is a company that changes to meet the market's expectation through its business strategy. It's a growing company that is trying to meet the demands of both the scientific and business world.[Brilliant analysis!]
Millennium's technology encompasses large-scale genetics, genomics, high-throughput screening and informatics. The company focuses on gene and target identification that has been validated by numerous biopharmaceutical partners, resulting in more than $1.7 billion in potential partnership funding.
Fancy Stage-Managing
The acquisition of LeukoSite put Millennium closer to being a card-carrying pharmaceutical company. LeukoSite not only had Campath in late-stage clinical trials, but six additional products in different stages of clinical testing.
Thus, Millennium inherited a rich product pipeline, bringing it closer to achieving near-term commercial opportunity.
In addition, wholly owned subsidiary Millennium Predictive Medicine focuses on diagnostics and pharmacogenomics. Not bad for a biotech initially considered as only a genomics company.
New Millennium for Millennium
At the beginning of the year, Millennium announced that it intended to have 10 drug candidates in clinical testing by the end of the year. At the moment the company has eight in its pipeline, but investors shouldn't worry, as Millennium is aggressively integrating a broad and diverse technology platform.
…The company wants to develop drugs for cancer, inflammation and metabolic disorders, enhance drug development, form alliances and further its technology through mergers and acquisitions. And with plenty of cash on the balance sheet, Millennium has the means to transform itself from a genomic/drug discover to a biotech company with real products.
Millennium continues to have the momentum to do well in the market especially since it is so highly followed by institutional players. Right now its share price has factored in the good news and will probably suffer a small pullback on profit-taking. Once the dust has settled, Millennium is a good play for investors over the long run.
Nadine Wong is editor and publisher of the BioTech Sage Report http://www.biotechsage.com , the leading biotech investment newsletter in the nation. Her weekly column looks at the hottest stocks in the biotech sector. She doesn't hold positions in any of the companies mentioned.
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