919473 SIGA TECHNOLOGIES INC. SHARES KGV 3,99 - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[getri]

Schon merkwürdig das Papiere die Gewinne machen nicht gekauft werden!
getri

[gholzbauer]

Das ist wohl eher ein negatives KGV von 4 ???

SIGA Announces Third Quarter Results
NEW YORK, Nov 20, 2000 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- SIGA Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIGA chart, msgs) reported that for the quarter ended September 30, 2000, it had a net loss of $2,658,225 or $.36 per share compared to a loss of $868,231 or $.13 per share for the same period of 1999. Excluding non-cash charges and a reserve taken against a loan owed the Company, the per share loss would have been $.18.

Among items of note during the third quarter was the awarding of a Small Business Innovation Research Program grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the development of protease inhibitors as potential broad-spectrum antibiotics, and an NIH Challenge Grant for research into the development of compounds specifically targeting antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. "We are pleased with the progress made in all our programs during this period and the validation our platform technologies received through strategic collaborations and grants," said Joshua D. Schein, Ph.D., SIGA`s CEO.

Additionally, shortly after the close of the third quarter, SIGA noted the following awards and actions:


* The receipt of a Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the
National Institutes of Health to support the Company`s Sexually
Transmitted Disease vaccine program, initially targeting a
therapeutic vaccine for Neisseria gonorrhea.

* The granting of funding from the Department of Health and Human
Services to develop a drug for treating or preventing human disease
caused by poxviruses due to deliberate release (i.e. biological
warfare).

* A research collaboration was entered into with Maxygen, Inc.
combining SIGA`s patented vaccine delivery system with Maxygen`s
proprietary antigens for generating an immune response.

* The addition of former MedImmune executive, Eric Richman, to the
Company`s Board of Directors.

SIGA is applying bacterial genomics in the design and development of novel products for the prevention and treatment of serious infectious diseases. With broad technology platforms in both vaccines and antibiotics, SIGA`s product development programs emphasize the increasingly serious problem of drug resistant bacteria. SIGA`s vaccine and antibiotic platforms are based on its pioneering research into the structure, function and processing of bacterial surface proteins. SIGA is leveraging these platforms through multiple strategic partners, including Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories (the pharmaceutical division of American Home Products) and the National Institutes of Health.

[getri]

Tiny SIGA wages two-pronged vaccine, antibiotic attack

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2000 3:47:00 PM EST
By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) - SIGA Technologies Inc SIGA. said on Thursday it plans within two years to have a half dozen products in human trials, including new vaccines and a novel class of antibiotics that work by stripping away weapon-like proteins from surfaces of harmful bacteria.

The tiny Manhattan biotech company, founded by researchers at Rockefeller University in New York and Oregon State University, went public in late 1997. It now has only one product in human trials, its StrepImmune vaccine meant to prevent "strep throat."

That Phase I study is being conducted and financed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Over 100 different strains of group A streptococcus cause strep throat, one reason no commercially successful vaccine has yet been developed against the common infection of children and young adults.

If left untreated, strep throat can lead to rheumatic fever and occasionally, heart damage.

The SIGA vaccine consists of harmless so-called commensal bacteria that blanket the body. They are trained in the laboratory to display bits of a specific "M" protein that SIGA believes are common to all the streptococcus strains.

"We`re best known in the biotech community for our strep throat vaccine programme because it is based on about 35 years of research at Rockefeller University," Joshua Schein, CEO of SIGA and a founder of the company, said in an interview.

Schein said a strep throat vaccine could be a "$300 million-a-year opportunity" in the United States, assuming that four million babies would receive it at a cost of perhaps $75 each. But he said it would take several more years for StrepImmune to complete trials and added that other companies might develop rival vaccines.

In the meantime, Schein said SIGA plans within two years to begin human trials of vaccines against two of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, chlamydia and gonorrhea. They will also consist of harmless commensal bacteria trained to deliver antigens, or protein snippets, from target disease-causing bacteria.

The company is also collaborating with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research on development of "therapeutic" cancer vaccines -- meant to educate the immune system how to spot and attack already existing ovarian, breast, melanoma and testicular tumours.

The cancer vaccines also employ commensal bacteria, but they are exposed instead to specific proteins found in tumours. The bacteria then display, or express, the tumour proteins on their surfaces.

"It would be safe to say our cancer vaccines could reach human trials within 18 to 24 months, or sooner," said Schein, who noted the Ludwig Institute has research branches in Europe, Brazil and the United States.

In addition to vaccines, SIGA hopes to develop a new class of synthetically made antibiotics meant to deprive bacteria of clever tools on their surfaces which they use to grasp and invade human tissue.

"Think of bacteria as tennis balls. Surface proteins are the fuzz on the ball and they play a critical role in helping the bacteria latch onto and infect people," Schein said.

The fuzz on all gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella, consists of proteins called pili that are essentially hook-like hairs. In gram-postive bacteria, which include staphylococcus and streptococcus, the fuzz is made up instead of a crazy quilt of proteins of different shapes.

"We`re developing an entirely new class of antibiotics that interfere with expression of these bacterial surface proteins, to essentially turn tennis balls into billiard balls. We want to de-nude the bacteria," Schein said.

"If bacteria don`t have the surface proteins they can`t attach to and bind to human tissue. So they can`t maintain an infection," Schein added.

As part of a three-year collaboration with American Home Products Corp AHP, Schein said SIGA had discovered a protease enzyme it hopes will prove to be the Achilles heel of gram-positive bacteria.

"The enzyme is located within the bacteria and plays a critical step in anchoring proteins to the surface," he said, adding that AHP will attempt to screen thousands of chemicals to see if any can be used as a drug to block the enzyme.

SIGA has about $3 million in cash reserves, adequate to fund another year of research and development, Schein said. He added SIGA raised $4.5 million earlier this year in private placements with institutional investors.

SIGA stock stood at 3-21/32 in late afternoon trading on the Nasdaq exchange, down 3/32. Its high for the past 12 months was 11-1/4 and at one point it dipped to a low of just 19/32.

Rtr 15:47 08-17-00


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