About ERIX
EiRx Therapeutics is a specialist provider of pre-clinical therapeutics to the pharmaceutical industry. Our unique scientific expertise and knowledge in the field of Apoptosis provide a sound base to discover and develop new medicines that will safely and selectively repair this natural process in disease. The potential benefits from these new medicines are enormous, since as many as 70% of all human disease have some defect in the control of Apoptosis.
Apoptosis - the biological process that determines whether cells in our bodies live or die...
http://www.eirx.com/index.html

Purchased some of these on the strength of the PROGRESS UPDATE looks promising.
http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200603200701130254A.html

ERX interview with John Pool
http://www.wallstreetreporter.com/interview.php?id=18589&player=real
Latest News
CANCER COLLABORATION WITH BIOMERIEUX SA
http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200607120700230534G.html
Biomerieux Web Site
http://www.biomerieux.com/servlet/srt/bio/portail/home
ABOUT ERX Focus Of The Month
http://www.billamag.net/focus-document-text.asp?FocusTextID=1
ERX pdf filehttp://www.eirx.com/eirx_heading_images/Yokohama2005.pdf
19/09/2006 A 50% reduction in breast tumour volume size seen with Eirx lead molecule in animal studies
http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200609190700171175J.html

Past and present collaborative partners include:

* bioMieux SA
* Almac Diagnostics Ltd
* Merck & Co, Ltd
* Biofocus plc
* MGI Pharmaceuticals, Inc
* OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc
* Sareum plc
* Regen Therapeutics plc
* SR Pharma plc

EiRx Therapeutic in deal with Merck for its delivery technology

LONDON (AFX) - EiRx Therapeutics PLC said it signed an agreement with Merck
& Co Inc to demonstrate its sirRNA delivery technology, which is used for
validation of novel drug targets.
EiRx, which specialises in the control of programmed life and death of cells
(apoptosis), will carry out research using its established cancer cell assays to
demonstrate the effectiveness of its technology to Merck.
newsdesk@afxnews.com

October 31, 5:19 AM ET
Merck to Buy Biotech Firm for $1.1B

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. said Monday it agreed to pay an eye-popping $1.1 billion to buy Sirna Therapeutics Inc., a tiny biotechnology firm developing drugs based on new technology at the heart of last month's Nobel Prize for medicine award.

Merck's $13-per-share offer for the San Francisco-based company is almost a 102 percent premium over Sirna's closing Nasdaq Stock Market price of $6.45, which fell 5 cents before the bid was made public after the stock markets closed. Sirna's stock surged 98 percent to $12.74 in after-hours trading. The stock's high for the past year is $8.52, set in April.

Merck's stock fell 45 cents to $45.64 at the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange and remained unchanged in after-hours trading.

Sirna is developing drugs using so-called RNA interference technology. There are at least a half-dozen biotechnology companies developing drugs that silence genes by interfering with the messenger-carrying RNA, a technique discovered by this year's Nobel winners, Andrew Fire of Stanford University and Craig Mello at the University of Massachusetts. There are eight U.S and European patents specifically related to the technology.

Analysts said the deal could spur other similar acquisitions of some of Sirna's handful of competitors who are racing to commercialize a discovery made only eight years ago - a short time in the scientific world.

Normally skittish venture capitalists already have invested hundreds of millions in the nascent technology and now Merck has made its second, most substantive bet on RNA interference. The Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company previously had invested in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a Sirna competitor.

The closest drug Sirna has near market is for the treatment of the eye disorder, macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. However, that drug is still at least two years from regulatory approval and probably further out because its experimental treatment will require the successful completion of at least two costly, time-consuming and large-scale human trials testing for safety and effectiveness.

"It's kind of surprising and I don't think anyone saw it coming," said Leerink Swann analyst William Tanner. "Big pharmaceutical companies tend to buy biotechnology companies with nearer term prospects."

But Tanner and other analysts said Sirna's technology is promising, as evidenced by the Nobel award this year.

"We believe that RNAi could significantly change the way in which we go about discovering and developing drugs, and could become a new way to treat patients with unmet medical needs," said Merck president Peter S. Kim.

Drug makers and researchers have long sought to create drugs that target bad cells while leaving healthy ones alone, hoping to rely less on dangerous, blunt treatments such as chemotherapy. Many are betting RNA interference will be a powerful tool in customizing drugs.

The idea, essentially, is to mug the messenger RNA before it can deliver its genetic information and thereby "silencing" genes.

But Nobel winner Fire recently said there are several significant scientific hurdles to overcome before the technology can be turned into drugs, including figuring out how to ensure the drug reaches its intended target while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

For Sirna, Merck's bid vindicates the dramatic overhaul company officials took in 2003, when the struggling company was named Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Inc. and was based in Boulder, Colo.

In April 2003, stockholders approved of a reverse stock split and a renaming of the company to Sirna to reflect its new embrace of RNA interference. The company changed most of its board of directors to appoint members from the stable of venture capital firms that invested a combined $48 million that April.

"The company made a really good call early on to focus on therapeutics and that focus has really paid off," said Jim Niedel, a venture capitalist who made half the $48 million investment on behalf of The Sprout Group. That investment made Sprout the company's largest shareholder and is worth a little less than $250 million based on Merck's bid, said Niedel, who served as the company chairman until earlier this year.

Merck said stockholders holding 36 percent of Sirna's outstanding shares already have committed to support the deal, which still needs antitrust clearance to close. The two companies hope to complete the deal in the first quarter of 2007.

take note of the takeover here... there is more to this

MM at it again.

Looks that way laurie !! 34,mil trades and back where we started :(

Merk and co are our major shareholder... hint hint if ya didnt know

Pot head, thanks for the post's but caution I think ! erx has not come fwd with an RNS, and why has the sp not moved ? SO UNTILL news i would rather not speculate ! but remain hopefull : )

our father ou art in heaven!!!!

After several e. mails a reponse : -
Thank you for contacting me.



We do not normally comment on rumours but can assure you that our company is aware of its reporting requirements and that information which is required to be disclosed has been and/or will be disclosed via RNS when appropriate. We are reviewing our website but as we cannot incorporate any price sensitive information until it has been released via RNS, we suggest that you look there for important news in the first instance.

LAURIE, THANKS our guess was right then ! post 406 ! :)

driver you should have mail by tomorrow sent it to day ref erix it was sent to me by colin telfer : )

laurie
So this is the most talked about email on the whole of the net it seems to me its a general answer thats given out to any question that you ask of ERX but read into it what you will. IMO I wouldnt want a take over, what would it be 100% premium on the close I thought we was looking for a lot more than that.

smiler
Email received cheers.

No way to only 100%, if only half the current rumours are true management would tell them to go away.
Based on the purchase yesterday from PH ERX holds more patents and is in control of a major niche area.
I don't think management would sell for less than 5p and if milestones are all in pipeline maybe pushing 10p as they know they are sitting on a good product IMO.

It would solve Glaxo or similar current pipeline problems though so an offer would not be a surprise to me.

JohnDavison - 31 Oct'06 - 21:13 - 8413 of 8443

Evening All

As promised I have had time to go through my e-mails despite interruptions from the family and clients.

I asked JP about OSI, I asked if the targets were set at the end of each cycle and in what form are the payments due, ie. consult fees for the first stage..etc... or would you normally get more than 1 of these at each stage from these sorts of contracts. - The response back was that normally there is a specific payment at the end of each defined process unless there is a JV or consultancy agreement in parallel in which case they would be separate.

So to take it further I wanted to know if such a payment process and parallel consult agreement is in place for OSI and, importantly, do we know if any of those targets have been met? Well a resounding Yes and Eirx are chasing.


As for the talk about takeover, I , currently, tend to disagree with Cannon...sorry mate !

JP has already said they have enough cash to last a year so why consider being taken over? Also when JP mention the M&A he was referring to the piece in the reports and accounts, he confirmed that to me. Just in case anyone didn't see it, it said

M & A activity:
A key aspect of the Company's longer term strategy is the building of an
integrated pharmaceutical company through the addition of skills such as
medicinal and synthetic chemistry. With our small-molecule lead programmes
underway and rapidly progressing towards the clinic, the need for these skills
is clear. Such skills may be acquired through M&A transactions, collaborations
(see above), or organic growth. The Board strongly feels that M&A activity
offers the most opportune route in the current climate and to this end is
actively exploring a number of such opportunities that offer access to key
complementary assets of other companies.

So I think it seems that both MGI and OSI owe us money and are being chased, I think the takeover rumour was just that...a rumour, and other news is due.

If any questions please let me know...I'll try and answer them...

Oh 1 other thing..any chance we can use this BB for info rather than jamming it up with crap..just a thought ? LOL

JD

fantastic article in the metro on cancer, using mice, appararently they are immune to cancer, they are called super mice.. sounded very much like ERX, it was front page news

certainly a lot of takeovers happening now, another one

Biomira Announces Acquisition of ProlX Pharmaceuticals
November 1, 2006 - 6:47 AM


Email this article to a friend Printable Version


Company to Host Conference Call at 11:00 a.m. ET -

EDMONTON, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Biomira Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOM) (TSX: BRA) announced today that it has acquired ProlX Pharmaceuticals Corporation, of Tucson, Arizona, and Houston, Texas, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. ProlX is developing small-molecule drugs that inhibit redox and cell-survival signaling proteins.


The acquisition will give Biomira a broadly-based portfolio of oncology products, including one product candidate expected to enter phase 3 by year end (Stimuvax(R)), one product expected to enter phase 2 in the current quarter (PX-12), and two products expected to begin clinical trials over the next 6 to 12 months, as well as several additional pre-clinical candidates.


"The acquisition of ProlX is a transformative event for Biomira, expanding and diversifying our pipeline of cancer therapies in development," said Robert L. Kirkman, M.D., President and CEO. "The combined programs will give us products in several phases of clinical development directed against multiple targets, diversifying risk while retaining our focus on the treatment of solid tumors. This is a major step toward our goal of building a leading oncology franchise."


Lynn Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., President and CEO of ProlX, who will join Biomira as Chief Scientific Officer, noted, "ProlX has built a diversified pipeline of novel drugs through structural design and targeted combinatorial chemistry, based on our research on targets which regulate cancer cell growth and cell death. I am delighted to be joining with Biomira and excited by the opportunity this transaction creates to accelerate the development of our drugs."


Promptly following closing Biomira will pay U.S. $3 million in cash and approximately 17,878,000 shares of Biomira common stock (subject to certain resale restrictions) in return for all of the outstanding stock of ProlX. In addition, and subject to applicable regulatory requirements, there may be up to three future payments based on the achievement of specified milestones. A payment in Biomira common stock (with registration rights) of U.S. $5 million is due upon the initiation of the first phase 3 trial of a ProlX product. Another payment in Biomira common stock (with registration rights) of U.S. $10 million is due upon regulatory approval of a ProlX product in a major market. Finally, under certain circumstances, ProlX shareholders may also receive a share of revenue from a potential collaboration agreement for a ProlX product in a specified non-oncology indication.


ProlX Products in Development


PX-12 is an inhibitor of thioredoxin. Increased thioredoxin levels in cancer cells have been linked to the aggressive proliferation of solid tumors, including colon, lung, and gastric cancers. PX-12 is currently being evaluated in a phase 1b trial in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers. A randomized phase 2 trial comparing two dose levels of PX-12 in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who have progressed on gemcitabine or a gemcitabine containing regimen is expected to start in the current quarter. An initial phase 1 trial involving 38 patients with advanced metastatic cancer showed that PX-12 was well tolerated and produced a decrease in plasma concentrations of thioredoxin that was significantly correlated with increased patient survival. Seven of the 38 patients achieved stable disease of up to 322 days.


PX-478 is an inhibitor of hypoxia inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a), a protein responsible for initiating the process of tumor blood vessel growth, or angiogenesis. PX-478 is the first direct inhibitor of this protein to be described. PX-478 is effective when delivered orally, and has shown marked tumor regressions and growth inhibition in model systems across a range of cancers, including ovarian, renal, prostate, colon, pancreatic, and breast cancer. PX-478 is in late stage pre-clinical development and is expected to begin its first clinical trial in the first half of 2007.


PX-866 is an inhibitor of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI-3-kinase)/PTEN/Akt pathway, an important survival signaling pathway that is activated in many types of human cancer. PI-3-kinase is over expressed in a number of human cancers, especially ovarian, colon, head and neck, urinary tract, and cervical cancers, where it leads to increased proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis. The PI-3-kinase inhibitor PX-866 induces prolonged inhibition of tumor PI-3-kinase signaling following both oral and intravenous administration and has been shown to have good in vivo anti-tumor activity in human ovarian and lung cancer, as well as intracranial glioblastoma, tumor models. PX-866 is in late pre-clinical development.


PX-316 is the first in a new class of chemical inhibitors of Akt-mediated survival signaling, has shown anti-tumor activity in animal models of colon and breast cancer, and is undergoing more extensive pre-clinical development.


Stimuvax(R)


Formerly known as BLP25 Liposome Vaccine (L-BLP25), Stimuvax(R) is a synthetic MUC1 peptide vaccine. Stimuvax(R) incorporates a 25-amino acid sequence of the MUC1 cancer mucin, encapsulated in a liposomal delivery system. The liposome enhances recognition of the cancer antigen by the immune system and facilitates better delivery. Stimuvax(R) is designed to induce an immune response to cancer cells. In a phase 2b trial conducted by Biomira in patients with Stage IIIb and IV non-small cell lung cancer, the median survival in the subset of patients with locoregional Stage IIIB disease was 30.6 months for patients receiving Stimuvax, compared with 13.3 months for patients in the control arm. A phase 3 trial of Stimuvax in patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer is expected to begin by year end. The trial will be conducted by Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, under terms of a licensing arrangement with Biomira.


About ProlX


ProlX Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a private biotechnology company located in Tucson, AZ and Houston, TX, dedicated to the discovery of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer. The Company's small molecule drug pipeline and discovery efforts target redox and survival signaling pathways.

Merck's Sirna Deal - Expect More From Big Pharma
Posted on Nov 1st, 2006 with stocks: MRK, PFE, RNAI

Chad Brand submits: Pharmaceutical giant Merck (MRK) is clearly looking for ways to boost growth. It's no secret that big pharma companies face increasing competition from generic drugs and pressure to keep rising healthcare costs in check. Small to mid size acquisitions of biotechnology companies are a solid way for companies like Merck, Pfizer (PFE), and Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) to strengthen their product pipelines.

On Monday we learned that Merck is paying more than $1 billion for Sirna Therapeutics (RNAI). It's is quite possible that they overpaid. After all, MRK is paying $13 per share in cash, a premium of more than 100 percent over Monday's closing price. However, overpaying by a couple hundred million dollars isn't a big deal for a company the size of Merck if several of Sirna's products eventually reach the market.

There is no doubt that deals like this one will continue. I am generally leery of trying to predict which firms will get taken out next. So, I would suggest that biotech investors pick stocks that have solid fundamentals, not just those that some speculate could get a bid from big pharma.

As for the pharma companies themselves, I like Pfizer at current levels ($27 per share). It trades at a discount to most of the other pharmaceutical companies and yields well over 3 percent. Pfizer has done mid size deals before and likely will do so in the future. In fact, I made a ton on a company called Esperion Therapeutics when it was bought out by Pfizer for $1.3 billion.

With a hefty yield and a below-market multiple, conservative, defensive, income-oriented investors should take a look at PFE. A recent analyst downgrade has knocked the stock down a buck.

PH is that you useful informative postings with no sell!!!!

Can anyone on level 2 explain how sells 3 minutes apart were 0.3 (Under rated) and 0.33 (over rated). Were they seperate dealers?

Banking on biotechs
Merck courts small companies as it tries remake itself and elbow out rivals
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
BY ED SILVERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff
At first blush, forking over more than $1 billion for a small biotech nology company with no products and just 80 employees may seem like fool's gold.

But Merck ap pears to have convinced Wall Street that its move this week to buy Sirna Therapeutics can pay off in spades.

The San Francisco-based biotech uses groundbreaking science called RNAi technology, which was the basis for the Nobel Prize in medicine awarded last month, to identify ways to discover medicines and target hard-to-treat diseases.

While the price tag for the company may be hefty and new medicines may not become available for a few years, Merck can use the ac quisition to leapfrog the competition and make it harder for rivals to gain an edge in this potentially im portant field, some Wall Street analysts said.

The deal "provides Merck with a powerful drug discovery and development platform, in addition to a broad therapeutic program," Barbara Ryan, an analyst who follows the pharmaceutical industry for Deutsche Bank, wrote in an investor note. "We view this as a smart move."

Merck shares dropped yesterday, but only slightly, on a day when the broader market fell on a dip in consumer confidence.

Sirna shares, meanwhile, nearly doubled.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions, alliances and investments by Merck, which is struggling to remake itself. Over the past few years, the Whitehouse Station-based company has suf fered from the withdrawal of its controversial Vioxx painkiller and the loss of patent protection on several big sellers, such as the Zocor cholesterol pill.

To compensate, Merck is openly courting biotech companies, an effort that represents a turnabout in strategy for a drugmaker that once prided itself on developing most of its medicines. Earlier this year, for instance, Merck's chief scientist, Peter Kim, made the equivalent of a sales pitch at a luncheon during a biotech convention in Manhattan.

The $1.1 billion Sirna deal "is another example of Merck delivering on its strategy of aggressively pursuing biotechnology companies that complement our considerable internal research capabilities," Richard Kender, Merck's vice president of business development and corporate licensing, said in a statement announcing the Sirna deal late Monday.

The Sirna acquisition, which is expected to close in early 2007, is noteworthy not just for the amount of money involved. By shelling out so much cash for Sirna, Merck is also increasing its bet on RNA interference technology, which was discovered only eight years ago but has generated enormous interest in the pharmaceutical industry.

The technology would be used to inactivate specific genes and tar get other genes related to particular diseases. Drugmakers are interested in RNAi because it holds the potential for identifying portions of cells that cause illness while creating medications that can fight the illness.

By scooping up Sirna, Merck moves into a leading position in RNAi. Five years ago, the drug maker purchased Rosetta Inphar matics, which develops tools to examine genes. And Merck also has a development deal with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Sirna's biggest rival.

Sirna is developing medicines to treat various illnesses, although it is furthest along with a product for macular degeneration. A key issue, however, is whether Sirna's technology will actually translate into useful medications.

"Will it be worth it?" David Risinger, a drug-industry analyst at Merrill Lynch, wrote in a note to investors. "Although RNAi is an exciting breakthrough technology for target identification and validation, we note that its therapeutic value has not yet been proven.

"However, strategically, Merck did acquire a leading position in RNAi technology, and this could enable the company to block out potential competitors should the technology prove to be viable."

EiRx Therapeutics (EiRx)



Announces Triggering of First Success Milestone Payments with OSI
Pharmaceuticals for the License of EiRx's Apoptosis Drug Targets



EiRx Therapeutics plc ("EiRx"). (LSE:AIM: ERX), the healthcare company
specialising in the control of programmed life and death of cells (apoptosis) is
pleased to announce its first major milestone agreement since its flotation on
AIM earlier this year with a potential value of up to US $18.8 million.



Following a 12 month period of Evaluation and Option, OSI Pharmaceuticals
("OSIP"), has elected to licence and take forward four of EiRx's novel
apoptosis gene targets into drug discovery for oncology. OSI Pharmaceuticals
(headquartered in Melville, NY), is a leading biotechnology company focused on
the discovery, development, and commercialization of high-quality, next-
generation oncology products. A success fee for each target is payable by OSIP,
as part of a deal consisting of upfront access and consultancy fees, potential
success fees for each target elected by OSIP to license and potential milestone
payments based on successful commercialisation of a novel therapeutic with
respect to each such target.



Ian Hayes, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of EiRx Therapeutics plc., commented:
"We are delighted by this positive outcome, to the therapeutic evaluation of our
novel apoptosis gene targets, by OSIP. Apoptosis regulation is rapidly gaining
appreciation as a central factor for many diseases, not least cancer. In
additional to the further validation of EiRx's apoptosis gene target discovery
platform ALIBI(TM), our agreement provides the opportunity to rapidly develop some
of EiRx's proprietary targets for drug discovery, while working with - and
learning from - one of the global leaders in developing novel oncology products."



"Our initial collaboration with EiRx has been very productive and we are excited
to be moving to the next phase of this research in which we will evaluate the
potential of the targets for the discovery of small molecules capable of
inducing apoptosis," stated Neil Gibson, Ph.D., Vice President of Research at
OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.