Another Medical Conference Friday — Here Are Some Companies To Watch

June 11, 2003
Paul Ruggieri

Now that the wake of the recent
cancer meetings has subsided, my attention turns to another big market disease,
diabetes. Starting Friday, the American Association of Diabetes will hold its
annual meeting, bringing together diabetes specialists from all over the world.
The meeting will run through the weekend and many companies will be making
presentations on developing new drugs. Diabetes affects over 15 million people
in this country and diabetic complications lead to billions of healthcare costs.
Both the medical profession and investors will closely watch the presentations
coming out of this large meeting.

In addition to Exantide, the company is also ready to file
a supplemental New Drug Application with the FDA regarding its other late-stage
diabetic drug, Symlin. Symlin has already been reviewed by an FDA advisory panel
and deemed approvable if Amylin generated more data regarding the drugâ€™s safety
profile. The company now appears poised to submit this additional data and take
the drug one step closer to unconditional approval. It would not surprise me if
news regarding this supplemental filing surfaces during this meeting. If so,
this would only add to the momentum this stock may have going into the meeting. Amylin
also has a new drug in phase II trials to treat congestive heart failure. No
data on this trial has been made public yet.

Generex and Emisphere are two companies developing their
own unique form of oral insulin. Insulin is usually administered by subcutaneous
injection and a company that can develop an effective oral form of the drug will
generate a lot of excitement in the medical community. Over the life of a
diabetic, injections are a chronic pain. An alternative to insulin injections
will be welcome, especially in the diabetic pediatric population. Both these
companies will present clinical data on their perspective oral insulin
technologies at the upcoming meeting.

Alteon
(
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related to diabetes. However, the company will present an abstract on its
flagship drug (ALT-711) that shows efficacy against diabetic nephropathy in
mice. This abstract may get some attention at the meeting but the real investor
attention is focused on the ongoing clinical trials of this drug testing it
against hypertension. ALT-711 acts by affecting the rigidity of blood vessels, a
rigidity that is implicated in the etiology of hypertension as we age. The
company plans to release much-anticipated data from the ongoing phase II
anti-hypertension trials in late July or early August. Take advantage of price
dips in this stock, because positive news from this trial will send this stock
price to new highs.

The abstracts to be presented at the American Diabetic
Association meeting have already been made public and can be accessed on the
meetingâ€™s website. However, I suspect the companies mentioned will still get
some favorable attention once the data from the abstracts are formally
announced. Thanks to ASCO, the climate for good biotech news is very investor
friendly.

Good Luck,

Paul Ruggieri, MD, FACS

Another Medical Conference Friday — Here Are Some Companies To Watch

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