Replies to post #133188 on Biotech Values

[ghmm]

Thanks for checking. Like you its only a blip on my radar at this point.

We have to get mcbio to do some work around here. He wins (almost official) a charity contest and gets everyone to do his work! Just kidding congrats mcbio very nice job beating the defending champ (I'm sure rkrw will be twice as hard to beat in '12)... oh and where is summary to the 3 hour Array Analyst Day its been over for 4 hours already! :-)

[ghmm]

LGND: I don't know if you caught the Oppenheimer presentation. There were a couple of interesting things (at least on the slides)
1. GSK will do (another) CLD study with Promacta (for those not familiar the prior trial was stopped because of safety). I remember at the 2010 R&D Day (for Ligand) the doc saying about why he thinks its still a good indication and how to mitigated some of the problems that caused the safety concerns.
2. GSK is initiating Phase 3 studies for Promacta in "oncology indications"
3. GSK to file NDA for Promacta in Hep C.

IMO I think the sales growth in Promacta should continue to accelerate well into next year! I suspect the dropping of the REMS should be a big plus. The fact the GSK seems still strongly pursuing other indications is an excellent sign as well!

[mcbio]

the MRK BACE program is indeed from Ligand. Phase 1 single dose showed the 58% reduction mentioned in LGND 10k, Phase 1 multidose showed 90% reduction (November 2011 MRK slides), and phase 2 to start 2012.

Thanks much for checking. LGND officially on my radar now.

[DewDiligence]

MRK’s presentations of BACE inhibitor, MK-8931, at AAIC:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/merck-highlights-data-presentations-alzheimer-210000693.html

[mcbio]

the MRK BACE program is indeed from Ligand. Phase 1 single dose showed the 58% reduction mentioned in LGND 10k, Phase 1 multidose showed 90% reduction (November 2011 MRK slides), and phase 2 to start 2012.

As is the case for numerous of their programs, Ligand knows nothing more than what MRK has put out publicly.

Just to follow up on this, why doesn't LGND disclose this particular project in its pipeline on its Web site (http://www.ligand.com/pipeline )? Also, if you click on the "Collaborations" part of LGND's Web site and click on Merck (http://www.ligand.com/merck ), it only discloses a CDK inhibitor for cancer in Phase 2. Curiously missing on the entire Web site is the BACE inhibitor. Are we sure that the MRK BACE inhibitor is from LGND?