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Prostaglandins Cool Reception for Genex Shares the 1982 Nobel Prize for Medicine Was Washington Held 22 Per Cent, Robert F

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Prostaglandins Cool Reception for Genex Shares the 1982 Nobel Prize for Medicine Was Washington Held 22 Per Cent, Robert F Nature Vol. 299 14 October 1982 573 Nobel prizes 1982 Biotechnology index Prostaglandins Cool reception for Genex shares The 1982 Nobel Prize for Medicine was Washington held 22 per cent, Robert F. Johnston, awarded this week jointly to Dr John R. The Genex Corporation of Rockville, chairman of the board, held II per cent and Vane of the United Kingdom and Dr Sune Maryland, one of the larger US biotech­ Glick had 11 per cent. Now, Glick's BergstrOm and Dr Bengt Samuelsson of nology companies, went public on schedule 1,080,000 shares in Genex have a book Sweden for their "discoveries concerning by offering 2 million shares of stock for value of approximately $9 million. prostaglandins and related biologically public sale on Wednesday 29 September The offering also gave the company's active substances". (too late for inclusion in Nature's founders some inkling of what their shares It has taken fifty years for September Biotechnology Index, see table). are worth. Genex has grown steadily and prostaglandins to be deemed worthy of a As always, the first public stock offering now has 211 employees. Each year, it has Nobel prize. They were discovered in is a major event for a young company as a increased its income through research semen by the Swede Ulf van Euler who test of how sound and promising the contracts. In mid-1982, Genex had eight misnamed them prostaglandins believing business community believes it to be. And major research contracts: four with them to originate from the prostate as the first public offering of a major bio­ Japanese companies (including work on whereas, in fact, they came from the technology corporation for some time, interferon for Green Cross) and two with seminal vesicles. Sune BergstrOm's interest Genex's debut was closely watched by Swedish companies. A seventh contract in prostaglandins stemmed from the early those concerned with genetic engineering was with Koppers and the eighth was with contributions of van Euler who must be as an investment. Wall Street analysts say Bristol-Meyers. The company has a pilot counted unlucky not to share in the prize. that the fact that Genex could soon derive plant producing L-aspartic acid for BergstrOm, at the Karolinska Institute in steady income from the artificial sweetener possible use in producing aspartame (an Stockholm used newly developed chroma­ market, and that it has work under way in artificial sweetener considered to have tographic methods for the separation of the interferon field and other promising great market potential - see Nature 16 lipids for the first purification of areas, made the stock trade well. But the September p.199). prostaglandins. BergstrOm and J. SjOvall lack of a market "hype" or a well-pub­ The market's calm response to the offer published the empirical formulae of licized human drug product made the of Genex shares showed that the US busi­ prostaglandins E and F in Acta chemica Genex offering lacklustre, in the opinion of ness community no longer views genetic scandinavia in 1960. Two years later, some analysts. engineering as the next best thing to the BergstrOm and Bengt Samuelsson, produced Even so, the stock traded quickly at Midas touch. Genex earlier planned to sell the first complete chemical structure of a $9.50 per share and all 2 million shares were 2.5 million shares for up to $12 per share, prostaglandin. sold. Thus, Genex grossed approximately and could have grossed as much as $33 The structure suggested that $19 million, and after fees can now put million. But it was felt that the market arachadonic acid, an essential fatty acid, around $17 million in the bank. would not bear such a price, so the offer was a precursor of prostaglandins. Genex was founded by J . Leslie Glick, a was pitched lower and the company's plans BergstrOm and Samuels son proved that former senior cancer research scientist at scaled back. After a week of trading, point in 1964 but only with the help of Roswell Park Memorial Institute. Glick Genex stock was selling at about $8.50 per David van Dorp of U nilever who provided had previously, in 1969, founded share. By contrast, in 1980, Genentech, them with radioactively labelled Associated Biomedic Systems, Inc., which another stable, well-regarded firm, offered arachadonic acid; van Dorp published the filed for bankruptcy in 1977. In 1977 Glick its first public stock at $35 per share and the same result independently but started Genex with backing from Koppers price rose, in hours of frenetic trading, to simultaneously. Samuels son has continued Company Inc. of Pittsburgh and the Inno­ $89 per share. By late September, however, to make important contributions, most Venn Group of venture capitalists. At the Genentech stock was selling below the notably in determining the structure of the time of the offering, Koppers held 45 per original offer price, reflecting the market's prostaglandin-related thromboxanes and cent of the company's shares. InnoVenn calmer mood. Deborah Shapley leukotrienes. Two major contributions are attached to Nature Index of biotechnology stocks John Vane's name. The first is the discovery, published in Nature in 1971, 1982 1982 Company Close Close Change high low previous 24 Sept that the anti-inflammatory effects of month aspirin and other non-steroidal drugs are related to their ability to inhibit the 34 Y4 16'/. A.B. Fortia (Sweden) 32 3,4 34 Y. · +IV2 synthesis of prostaglandins. Vane was then 8 2 Bio Logicals (Canada) 2 2 Y, +Yl 7 3 'I. Bio-Response (USA) 4 4% + 3/_ at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences 7 but later went to the Wellcome Research 14'/. 8 Cetus (USA) 8 /. 8% -'I. 11 6 '/. Collaborative Research (USA) 8 -';. 8'/. + 1/.0 Laboratories where he discovered 7 21 /. 14 Collagen (USA) 17 'I. 18 Y2 +'/. prostacyclin, a highly unstable 7 7 8 /. 53,4 Damon (USA) 7 / . 7 Yz -'Is prostaglandin which can inhibit platelet 17 Y4 II Y4 Enzo-Biochem (USA) 12 14 Y, +2V2 aggregation. The work on prostacyclin was 28 6 '/. Flow General (USA) IO '/. 10'/. +1/.0 primarily in the hands of Salvador 37 % 26 Genentech (USA) 33 % 33 Y4 - V2 Moncanada, first author of the key paper 3'/. 2Y. Genetic Systems (USA) 3'/. 3 1,4 +'/. 7 (Nature 263,663; 1976). 17 /. 9 'I. Hybritech (USA) 14-';. 13 Y, _ 7/. Pharmacologically, prostaglandins have 10 % 6 Y. Molecular Genetics (USA) 10 % 10 %· 0 3 7 _23/_ marked effects on the contraction of 46 ,4 34 / . Novo Industri A/S (Den.) 46 % 44 12 ';. Monoclonal Antibodies (USA) 9 3,4 8 Y. smooth muscle and they are implicated in 8 -I Yl uterine and blood vessel contraction. They The Nature Biotechnology Index for September 1982 stands at 117.9, compared with 118.1 last have been used in the induction of labour month. Base is 100 as of 25 June 1982. Previous indexes appeared Nature 12 August p.599 and 9 September p. lOl . Close-of-month prices are the closing prices on the last Friday of each month. and abortion in humans and are used Where stocks are traded over the counter, the price quoted is the bid price. For stocks traded on the widely in veterinary practice to synchronize American and New York Stock Exchanges, the price quoted is the transaction price. Data from oestrus prior to artificial insemination of a E.F. Hutton, Inc. herd of cows. Peter Newmark ·High or low for this calendar year. 0028-0836/ 8214 10573·()I$0 1.00 C> 1982 Ma\,; millan Journa ls I.ld .
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