Sarossa Share Discussion Threads

[a harris] 07/5/2003 13:21

No problem Ariane

SciClone benefits from SARS scare
Pharmaceutical sales to China soar
By FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
SAN MATEO -- SciClone Pharmaceuticals shares jumped Tuesday after the biopharmaceutical company reported a SARS-related surge in sales of its immune-system enhancing drug Zadaxin to China.
Shares of San Mateo-based SciClone hit $7.40 per share Tuesday, up $1.10, or 17 percent, on heavy volume on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Zadaxin was approved in China to fight Hepatitis B. But in an effort to fight SARS, the Chinese government has publicly approved the use of immunity enhancers, said H.C. Wainwright analyst Ronald Opel. Since Zadaxin is expensive, only China's wealthiest have taken injections of the drug following the approval.

Zadaxin works by stimulating the production of white blood cells, which enhances the body's ability to fight infectious diseases. The drug is approved in 20 countries, and is undergoing Phase III trials for the treatment of Hepatitis C in the United States.

There is no indication that Zadaxin is effective against SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, but given its multiple applications, Opel said there is a good chance it could work.

Opel owns a stake in SciClone, saying he believes analysts should hold a small position in companies consistent with their recommendations. H.C. Wainwright doesn't have an investment banking relationship with the company.

Rudolph said the models are being put together for animal testing in the United States by the Center for Disease Control. There are no clinical studies on Zadaxin's effect on SARS, given the suddenness of the disease's emergence.

Don Sellers, chief executive and president of SciClone, said the drug is being sold to China for $50 a vial, and patients end up paying about $100 per vial. Patients usually take about two shots a week for six months to treat Hepatitis B, but he didn't know how frequently people were taking it for SARS.>

SciClone said it expects sales from Zadaxin to drive up second-quarter revenue to more than $15 million

[ariane] 07/5/2003 11:00

ZURICH (AFX) - Roche Holding AG will probably have a SARS diagnostics test
ready by June, but it will not be marketable before at least 18 months, the head
of Roche's Diagnostics division Heino von Prondzynski said.
The first diagnostics tests will be sold to researchers for a price below 15
usd per unit, he said.
It will however take 18 months for these tests to be granted regulatory
approvals in order to be marketed.
SARS has to date killed over 500 people and infected 7,000 in total.
[e-mail]
ats/de/cmr

[ariane] 07/5/2003 10:57

thanks for the post and links aharris,thanks to you also maywillow.

ZURICH (AFX) - Roche Holding AG will probably have a SARS diagnostics test
ready by June, but it will not be marketable before at least 18 months, the head
of Roche's Diagnostics division Heino von Prondzynski said.
The first diagnostics tests will be sold to researchers for a price below 15
usd per unit, he said.
It will however take 18 months for these tests to be granted regulatory
approvals in order to be marketed.
SARS has to date killed over 500 people and infected 7,000 in total.
[e-mail]
ats/de/cmr

[ahkeen] 07/5/2003 10:26

A decent site with loads of sensible SARS info;

[hyper al] 07/5/2003 08:37

First case of SARS in India and Colombia

SARS is not going away and the fact that people have managed to enter the above countries shows this and I bet it is only chance that the above cases were discovered.

[a.fewbob] 06/5/2003 12:17

I am never suprised by the complacency shown by our goverment when it comes to caring for its own populous.

We are expendable.

[smellsnbells] 06/5/2003 00:27

The initial SARS exitement took place on the OMH thread. Osmetech sold a few SARS `sniffers` to China and the share price took off out of all proportion to reality. With the epidemic seemingly now contained it should see a price ajustment this week downward and a major world wide out break of death will not now materialise.

[marwalker] 05/5/2003 21:44

Not very cheery news from CNBC , evidently SARS survives for 24 hrs. on hards surfaces , 4 days in human waste . Evidently it is mutating , it's different from a few monthss ago . This means that if you caught it then , you can get it again.

[captain swing] 05/5/2003 09:08

Better start using silver money!

[eurofox] 05/5/2003 09:02

SARS virus can survive on things that have been touched by an infected person for days - better stop using real money!

[captain swing] 05/5/2003 08:56

Holy sanitary precautions Batman! Could this be a job for

?

Silver based antibiotic powder coating.

Available now. Can be used on metal and wood surfaces as well as plastic, unlike market leader Microban (an organic substance) which can only be applied to plastic.

I am not sure about the effectiveness against viruses, the tests have only been for bacteria, but "colloidal silver" literature claims antiviral and antifungal properties for this metal.

Biocote is said to be floating soon, or you can buy shares in the technology incubator company Flintstone FLT.

This isn't meant to be a ramp (well only a little one) but I shall certainly be watching for developments.

Pat (FLT holder)

[captain swing] 05/5/2003 08:27

Biocote is silver based. The tests which have been published, see www.biocote.com, are all for bacteria e.g. staph and e.coli.

However there is a lot of literature about "colloidal silver" some of it rather dubious. This at least claims an antiviral effect



SILVER is a powerful, natural antibiotic/prophylactic, used for thousands of years with no side effects. It acts as a catalyst, disabling the enzyme that all one-celled bacteria, virus and fungus need for their oxygen metabolism. They suffocate, yet it will not harm human enzymes or any part of the human body.

[captain swing] 05/5/2003 08:13

How about this? I don't actually know if it works against viruses (like SARS) as well as bacteria. Biocote the license holder is supposed to be floating soon, or you could buy Flintstone FLT.



Built-in protection against bugs, even the much-publicised superbugs, is provided by Sonneborn & Rieck's latest powder coating, developed in conjunction with BioCote.

Any metal or wood surface finished with this powder coating inhibits the growth of a wide range of bacteria.

As such, it is of key interest to those manufacturers supplying the health sector – hospitals and clinics, for example, will be able to greatly reduce contamination risks – and any other sectors where there is a major concern about risks of infection: food processing, public dining areas, nursery equipment, homes for the elderly, public washrooms and toilets, and leisure and play centres.

Powder coating is already widely used for products in these areas. Now, by using Sonneborn & Rieck's newly-formulated BioCote powder coatings it's possible to obtain not only a first-class, quality finish but one which will keep most bacteria at bay – an enormous added bonus.

[crystalclear] 05/5/2003 01:13

Heard that property prices slump after plagues, and labour costs rise due to the shortage of workers.

[freeme] 04/5/2003 22:28

Marwalker
The company should be applauded. Let's hope other companies follow their example.

[marwalker] 04/5/2003 20:40

I believe it was GSK or some such major UK pharma , has recently greatly reduced the cost of their AID'S drugs to the third world.

[freeme] 04/5/2003 19:21

crystalclear

The extract below (from Aids Epidemic Update Dec 2002 UNAIDS/WHO ) gives an indication of the scale of the problem.Note it also mentions opportunistic infections.

Needless to say if people are malnourished their ability to fight off infection will be impaired.No matter how one looks at it, however, it remains true that the impact of SARS in Africa will be disastrous.

Many people living within the UK have relations in the less developed countries of the world.It is immoral, therefore, that a relatively affluent country like the U.K. should have opted for a policy that ,in effect, allows anyone from Hong Kong etc to enter without adequate quarantine measures being taken. Even if the NHS was able, miraculously, to keep on top of any outbreaks that occurred within our borders, this policy increases the likelihood that the SARS virus will spread from the U,K to the wider world.

For those amongst you who do not care about deaths in far away places can I
draw your attention to the fact that a significant number of UK Aids patients have contracted the virus from 'Third World' partners.If SARS is allowed to devastate the Third World everyone will pay a high price eventually.
-------------------------------------------

The annual number of new infections has remained steady, but it hides dynamic trends. In some countries, the epidemic is still growing, despite its severity. Others face a growing danger of explosive growth.

By far the worst-affected region, sub-Saharan Africa is now home to 29.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS. Approximately 3.5 million new infections occurred there in 2002, while the epidemic claimed the lives of an estimated 2.4 million Africans in the past year. Ten million young people (aged 15–24) and almost 3 million children under 15 are living with HIV.

A tiny fraction of the millions of Africans in need of antiretroviral treatment are receiving it. Many millions are not receiving medicines to treat opportunistic infections, either. These figures reflect the world's continuing failure, despite the progress of recent years, to mount a response that matches the scale and severity of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

A fully-fledged epidemic is only now taking hold in many African countries-as much greater numbers of people who acquired HIV over the past several years fall ill. In the absence of massively expanded prevention, treatment and care efforts, the AIDS death toll on the continent is expected to continue rising before peaking around the end of this decade. This means that the worst of the epidemic's impact on those societies will be felt in the course of the next decade and beyond. It is not too late to introduce and augment measures that can reduce that impact, including wider access to HIV medicines and socioeconomic policy steps that genuinely shield the poor against the worst of the epidemic's effects.

The worst of the epidemic clearly has not yet passed, even in southern Africa where rampant epidemics are under way. In four southern African countries, national adult HIV prevalence has risen higher than thought possible, exceeding 30%: Botswana (38.8%), Lesotho (31%), Swaziland (33.4%) and Zimbabwe (33.7%). As this report shows, the food crises faced in the latter three countries are linked to the toll of their longstanding HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially on the lives of young, productive adults.
Yet, there are new, hopeful signs that the epidemic could eventually be brought under control. Positive trends seem to be taking hold among younger people in a number of countries.
In South Africa, for pregnant women under 20, HIV prevalence rates fell to 15.4% in 2001 (down from 21% in 1998). This, along with the drop in syphilis rates among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics-down to 2.8% in 2001, from 11.2% four years earlier-suggests that awareness campaigns and prevention programmes are bearing fruit. A major challenge now is to sustain and build on such tentative success, not least because HIV infection levels continue to rise among older pregnant women, as the graph below shows.