10
BioTech Navigator, August 1997
52 Week Trading History
In a previous issue, Prostate
Cancer: Killer of Men, (Vol. 1, Issue
3), we highlighted Immunex. Once
again, we put Immunex in the spot-
light. To refresh your memories and
for our new readers, Immunex is a
biopharmaceutical company that dis-
covers and develops, manufactures
and markets innovative therapeutic
products for the treatment of cancer,
infectious diseases and immunological
disorders. Most of Immunex's
biotechnology products are recombi-
nant analogs of cytokines. Cytokines
Immunex reported second
quarter earnings to be a loss of 22
cents per share compared to a loss of
16 cents per share for the same period
last year. Year to date for 1997 is a
loss of 44 cents per share compared to
a loss of 31 cents for the same period
for 1996.
Immunex said second quarter
sales, general and administration ex-
penses were $19.5 million compared
with $16.7 million last year.
Immunex said total operating
expenses for the quarter were $52.5
million compared with $48.4 million
for the same period in 1996.
Immunex received approval
from Canada's Health Protection
Branch to market the paclitaxel injec-
tion in that country. Paclitaxel is a
chemotherapeutic agent approved to
treat refractory ovarian and refractory
breast cancers. It is marketed under
the Taxol name exclusively by
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY).
Paclitaxel will be available in Canada
in 5-mL single dose vials containing
30 milligrams of drug.
The biopharmaceutical com-
pany said it is supplying paclitaxel
under agreements between Hauser
Inc. (HAUS) and American
Cyanamid, a unit of American Home
Products Corp. (AHP) and a major
Immunex major stakeholder. Im-
munex said it plans to announce its
Canadian marketing partner and
launch date for paclitaxel injection
`'shortly.'' The company said it is
pursuing U.S. development of pacli-
taxel.
Immunex Corporation
Overview
Status
are protein messengers that coordi-
nate the functions of immune cells
(white blood cells) and certain other
cells and tissues. Through its re-
search and development, Immunex
has cloned and expressed genes en-
coding cytokine receptors and have
also produced soluble versions of cy-
tokine receptors, that have been
shown to be capable of suppressing
immune responses by binding to and
inactivating cytokines. In addition,
Immunex has also cloned certain en-
zymes responsible for secretion of sol-
uble cytokines and receptors and for
propagating the signals necessary to
Product Pipeline (abbreviated)
Product
Indication
Status
Leukine
Bone marrow transplant engraftment
Marketed
Novantrone
Acute nonlymphoctic leukemia, prostate cancer
Marketed
Breast & ovarian cancers, non-hodgkin's lymphoma Phase ll
Thioplex
Palliative treatment of a variety of tumors
Marketed
Amicar
Hemostasis
Marketed
ENBREL
Rheumatoid arthritis
Phase lll
IL-4R
Asthma
Phase l/ll
activate cytokine target cells for use as
targets in small molecule drug discov-
ery.
