Newsgroup: it.economia.borsa
Titolo: Da Business Week

Is Cell Therapeutics In Remission?
The battered biotech's controversial CEO has won over Novartis, but
investors are wary
On a tense August day in 2005, Cell Therapeutics' (CTIC ) chief
executive sat in a conference room while the company's board of
directors met next door and debated whether or not to fire him. The
Seattle biotech's lead drug candidate, a lung cancer treatment called
Xyotax, had failed a key clinical trial. To make matters worse, the
CEO, Dr. James A. Bianco, had decided to sell off Cell Therapeutics
Inc.'s only moneymaking drug. Throughout that gut-wrenching day, he was
introspective but resolute. "I didn't question my vision and values,"
says Bianco, an oncologist who left clinical practice 15 years ago to
develop cancer treatments that would be less punishing than
chemotherapy and radiation.
Bianco survived the coup attempt and has been struggling ever since to
regain his stride. Some days are pretty good. This year he persuaded
the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to consider Xyotax as a drug just
for treating women. Several studies, including four released on Nov. 8,
show that Xyotax interacts with the female hormone estrogen to slow the
growth of some tumors. If it's approved, Xyotax--a reengineered form of
the chemo drug paclitaxel--could usher in a new treatment paradigm. The
approval would bolster the idea that certain tumors behave differently
in men and in women and give doctors a new weapon in the fight.
DOGGED BY SHORT SELLERS
FDA approval would be a victory for Bianco, a controversial character
whose reputation for scientific ingenuity is offset at times by his
excessive enthusiasm. For example, Bianco estimates that Xyotax could
be worth $500 million a year, and he even won the confidence of
Novartis, which signed a co-development deal that could bring $285
million in much needed capital to CTI. But Bianco has a long history of
making similar grand claims for the drug. Xyotax is still years away
from the market--and short sellers who bet on CTI's continuing
disappointments have made a killing.
Bianco hasn't shaken the black cloud that has hovered over him since he
co-founded CTI in 1992. Xyotax, which was initially tested in both men
and women, logged so many research disappointments that investors
pounded the stock from 70 in 2000 to a recent 1.50. Clearly, the market
is wary of Bianco's perennially sunny predictions. "He's not
everybody's favorite CEO," notes CTI Chairman Phillip M. Nudelman. Even
the Novartis milestone seems to have set pessimists sniffing for blood.
Short interest in CTI's stock jumped 44% from August to September.
Bianco is unlikely to regain investors' confidence until the FDA weighs
in on the lung cancer approval in 2008.
Nonetheless, when the board considered who might make a worthy
successor to Bianco, they couldn't think of anyone who matched his
prowess in both medicine and finance, Nudelman says. Bianco has
engineered 20 financing rounds, raising a cumulative $1 billion for
CTI--a feat he lists on his résumé alongside his medical training and
his penchant for collecting electric guitars and 16th century ceramics.
"He always has more than one ball in the air," says George Bickerstaff,
managing director of CRT Capital Group, a Stamford (Conn.) investment
bank that has worked with CTI. "He's extraordinarily flexible in
dealing with almost insurmountable challenges."
Bianco's toughest decisions were rooted in two acquisitions. In 2000,
CTI bought a New York biotech and succeeded in getting its leukemia
drug on the market. But by 2005 the product was generating just $22
million a year in sales while costing CTI $53 million a year. The
company needed cash to support trials of Xyotax and another cancer
drug, Pixantrone, which it picked up in its 2004 acquisition of Italian
biotech Novuspharma. So Bianco sold the leukemia drug for $68.8 million
and announced plans to cut staff in the U.S. and Italy by more than
half. For the dissenting board members, recalls Bianco, "it was very
emotional that I had the chutzpah to take this company back to a
development-stage organization." (The four dissenters have left the
company. Three didn't return calls; the fourth declined to comment.)
CTI has dodged so many bullets on Wall Street that it seems miraculous
the company is still standing. Once, one of the physicians managing a
trial of Xyotax was asked to participate in a conference call for
investors, most of whom managed hedge funds. The call was supposed to
be about two other cancer drugs, but the analyst threw in a question
about Xyotax. The physician answered by expressing concern that some of
the clinical trials were being done in Eastern Europe. "Boom! Our stock
went down," Bianco recalls. More recently, investors blanched when
NASDAQ threatened to delist CTI's shares. Regulators told Bianco that
CTI's stock offering in September violated NASD rules. So he quickly
bought back $3 million in shares and warrants from investors and
escaped delisting.
Just when Bianco thought it was safe to crow about Xyotax again, more
trouble arrived. On Nov. 3 the company announced it was suspending
enrollment in Xyotax trials for six months so it could analyze patient
mortality patterns. CTI also redesigned the study to focus on women
with normal estrogen levels, including post-menopausal women who take
hormone supplements. The changes were made based on guidance from the
FDA. While the company does not believe the deaths signal safety
issues, the suspension will push potential approval back by as much as
six months.
Meanwhile, competitors have beaten Bianco to his goal of developing
less toxic chemo drugs. An archrival, Los Angeles-based Abraxis
Oncology, had its reengineered paclitaxel approved to treat breast
cancer in 2005.
Bianco rarely gets rattled--a trait he honed while attending Mount
Sinai School of Medicine in New York. While still in his third year,
the faculty invited him to be chief resident. "He was very thorough and
compulsive, which are qualities that made for an excellent role model,"
recalls Dr. Richard M. Stein, who directed the residency program at the
time. Bianco put himself through college by managing three discount
retail drugstores, so the administrative part of the job didn't faze
him. His biggest challenge was soothing the psyches of residents who
cracked under pressure. Diagnosing disease, Bianco says, "is about
learning to connect the dots real fast. I loved it. I counseled them on
how to get there."
Bianco hopes Cell Therapeutics is finally entering the last leg of its
excruciating Xyotax marathon. Initial trials show that 40% of women on
the drug survive for a year, vs. 25% of patients in control groups. And
the Xyotax patients suffer fewer side effects, such as hair loss and
anemia. CTI's other lead drug, Pixantrone, which is designed to be a
safer version of a chemo treatment that causes heart trouble, has
proven so promising in trials that Novartis optioned the rights to
develop it as well.
CTI isn't out of the woods, yet Bianco permits himself to feel
vindicated. At least on good days.

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1,68 dollari
+7,69%
hanno comprato pure nell'afterH (volumi interessanti)

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Mr. Bianco sà che sarà dura con gli italiani il 30 p.v. a Milano.
Lo zuccherino sino al 30 pomeriggio, quando avrà il quorum tanto ambito,
diluirà nuovamente le azioni con un bel ADC.
Saluti chi vuol esser lieto sia
apuo