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COPYRIGHT 2004 Financial Times Ltd.
(From Fair Disclosure Wire)
MAGED SHENOUDA, BIOTECHNOLOGY ANALYST, J.P. MORGAN: Good morning, and welcome to the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. I'm Maged Shenouda, and I'm one of the biotechnology analysts at J.P. Morgan. It is my pleasure today to introduce Celgene. Celgene is a high-profile MidCap biotechnology company focused in the areas of oncology and inflammatory disorders. With its lead product, THALOMID, Celgene has a significant commercial presence, with over $200 million in sales for 2003. Additionally, Celgene is developing REVIMID, which is currently in registration trials for MDS, multiple myeloma, and metastatic melanoma. With us today, presenting from the company, is Sol Barer, President and Chief Operating Officer of Celgene. Sol?
SOL BARER, PRESIDENT & COO, CELGENE: Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here today and provide a perspective on Celgene for you. Before I begin, however, I am obligated to say that I will be making certain forward-looking statements, the actual results of which may be different than the ones I indicate. Celgene's mission is to build a major, highly-profitable pharmaceutical company, with a major focus on the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of cancer and immune inflammatory diseases, on a global scale. We are uniquely positioned for success. We have been profitable for the full year. I will give you some more information on the fourth quarter later on. We have had significant and rapid revenue growth, and we are focused on major unmet needs in cancer and immune inflammation. Our lead product, REVIMID, is in advanced regulatory trials -- there are actually five registration potential trials that are ongoing with this product -- and I will talk with you a little bit about that. And this is the result of our cutting-edge research, which has led to a broad, deep, and wholly-owned proprietary pipeline. We are very proud of our senior management team, and we have a very strong balance sheet, with over $650 million in cash and marketable securities. Our accomplishments for 2003 are excellent; we had a spectacular year. I will go more into the operating performance as I go through this talk. We advanced every element of our pipeline, including REVIMID, from a clinical perspective. We developed three classes of IMiDs, I will talk to you about. We have an alliance with the National Cancer Institute in new cancer compounds. We brought a JNK in SelCID into the clinic. And in addition, we have a relationship with Glaxo SmithKline, whereby we have exclusive distribution and marketing rights for one of their cancer compounds. We had very positive data at every major cancer meeting around the world, and we strengthened our intellectual property position with fundamental patents issued for our proprietary S.T.E.P.S. program, as well as for our JNK and IMID programs. Via our partner, Pharmion, we got approval for the use of thalidomide for multiple myeloma in Australia and in New Zealand. And now it is before the European commission, as well. They did a great job for that. As you will hear, we advanced our Ritalin program. Our financial profile was strengthened with the acquisition of $400 million on very favorable terms. And we recruited additional members to our senior management team from major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Celgene's pipeline is driven by our drug discovery engine that is focused on some of the most important targets in modern molecular medicine, and is being used to develop therapeutics for cancer, immune inflammatory diseases and opportunistically for neurological diseases. This has resulted in a pipeline of products -- from a commercial perspective, THALOMID, which is approved for ENL and inflammatory complication of leprosy, has also undergone intensive...
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