| How
many shares does ADVR have left for future financing? |
| R&D
cash crunch looms for biotech firms, study warns By Leonard Zehr Biotechnology Reporter May. 13, 2004 Nearly half of the 81 publicly traded biotech companies in Canada face a severe cash squeeze, with less than one year of cash in the bank for research and development, management consultants Ernst and Young LLP warn in a new study. That represents an increase from 38 per cent at the end of 2002. Moreover, while 34 per cent of the Canadian sector appears to be in good shape with three or more years of cash, 66 per cent ended the year with less than two years of cash, up from 52 per cent at the end of 2002, the firm said in its annual global review of the biotech industry. "A number of [large] companies in Canada are very successful and able to access capital markets to raise funds, whereas earlier-stage and smaller public companies are in an even more precarious position than they were during the market depression of 2002," Ernst &Young said. In an interview, Rod Budd, E&Y's Canadian life science leader, said it's important for companies to get a product into late-stage Phase III testing as fast as possible in order to create value. "Otherwise, they face getting a strategic partner that can help them with financing, doing a merger, selling off part of the business and adopting significant cutbacks to focus on lead products." Mr. Budd said the performance of the 10 leading biotech companies, which account for 70 per cent of the $13.8-billion (U.S.) total market capitalization in Canada, indicates that the sector is "becoming segregated in haves and have-nots." "Capital markets last year seemed to be open only to companies that were producing revenue or had late-stage products, usually in Phase III, with near-term revenue potential." While public company financings raised $1.14-billion last year, up from $328-million in 2002, the top 10 raised more than $773-million, or 57 per cent of total financings in 2003. "They have the cash and proven technology to execute their business plan," Mr. Budd added. He said "several sizable financing issues" have been floated so far in 2004, and that drug developer MethylGene Inc. of Montreal is marketing a proposed initial public offering rumoured to be in the range of $30-million to $40-million (Canadian). In the U.S. biotech sector, financings in the first four months of 2004 appear to be continuing at the pace of the final six months of 2003, he added. Despite the cash squeeze in 2003, E&Y said the number of public biotech companies in Canada only declined to 81 from 85. "A primary reason why more companies did not merge in 2003 was that by reducing their annual [R&D spending], many have been able to survive on their own, but at the cost of curtailing their research efforts." Nevertheless, venture fund financings for biotech startups remained fairly constant at $206-million (U.S.) but the average transaction jumped in value to $3.2-million from less than $2-million in 2002. Eight of the 64 deals completed in 2003 were in excess of $7-million, "an amount almost unheard of in Canada two or three years ago," Mr. Budd said. |
| Latent
Drug-resistant HIV Harbored for Years By David Douglas Thursday, May 13, 2004 NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite a successful response to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), drug resistant strains of HIV are still found in blood cells of patients who have previously shown drug resistance, according to Belgian researchers. "We were able to show that all drug-resistant HIV-1 variants that arise during therapy failure remain archived in the cells of the infected person for a very long period of time--at least 7 years and most probably much longer," lead investigator Dr. Chris Verhofstede told Reuters Health. This occurred "even if drug pressure was removed or if a patient subsequently responded well to a new drug combination." As reported in the April 15th issue of the Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes, Verhofstede and colleagues from Ghent University Hospital studied 11 patients who had had success with HAART for an average of 59 months. All patients also had a history of receiving suboptimal therapy and had previously developed drug resistance. In 10 of the patients, drug-resistant viral strains that had previously evolved were still detectable in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. "These findings," Verhofstede continued, "indicate that once resistance arises against an antiretroviral, the activity of this drug will remain reduced for several years and possibly life-long, even after a withdrawal period of years. Recycling drugs is therefore not an advisable option if other alternatives are available." These results, he added, "also argue against a possible benefit of therapy interruptions as a way to improve the effect of a subsequently introduced salvage regimen containing recycled drugs." SOURCE: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, April 15, 2004. |
| Just
so you know. ADVR does follow along with these posts. Dan |
| Did
Bregman make a material misrepresentation? Did he proliferate sensitive
inside information? Am I a paid basher? I know what I know and I smell
smoke. I see fire. I sense justice. |
| Bregman
is obviously a fool....yes he proliferated sensitive inside info...I
doubt you're a paid basher.... I smell smoke just as I did when
Hirschman said "I hope to have the drug to market in 2001"....
I see no justice here....yet. - - - - - View Replies » |
| I
agree. I am more curious what prompted Hirschman to say that. Bregman?
Friedland? - - - - - |
| Acrually
I'm more curious why Hirschman never provided shareholders with an
explanation for that comment. |
| mz,
I think ADVR is in the game but not first tier yet. The company at least needs to complete a P1 and show full data.Down the road I hope any new regulation will help ADVR get a fater approval lord knows this company needs a way to get to market sooner. I hope ADVR flys tomorrow and the rest of the week I just wish they were nearing the end of a P2 not a P1 it would imo mean more and make the shares potentially more valuable with faster approval times coming I hope you get .22 tomorrow and then some Allen |