The market survived Greenspan's comments indicating a bias toward future interest rate tightening. Not only did the Dow Industrials recover fairly well from the initial sell-off accompanying that news, but also the 30 year Treasury Bond was up 5/32 giving a yield of 5.88%

In our May 14 article, we wrote about Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND). Today it closed at 10 3/4, up 1/4 on volume of 170,000 shares, which isn't much. Anyway, there is so much to say about this stock, that I thought it useful to note the many diseases they're addressing.

You may recall that they have 19 drugs in the pre-clinical testing stage, 6 drugs in phase I/II stages, and 9 drugs in phase II/III stages; we told you what diseases these latter stage drugs were for.

Their pre-clinical stage drugs are for the treatment of basal cell cancer of the skin, skin cancer, acne, prostate cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome, aids-wasting, hypogonadism, osteoporosis, contraception, reproductive disorders, type II diabetes, atherosclerosis, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, infectious disease, multiple sclerosis, anemia, immunology, and psoriasis.

Their phase I/II stage drugs are for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, psoriasis, Kaposi's sarcoma (with interferon), pediatric cancers, breast cancer, actinic keratoses, head and neck cancer, cervical cancer, post-menopausal osteoporosis, and type II diabetes.

Sure, a lot of these drugs are many years away from approval, and some or most may never be approved. But all Biotechs are in the same boat. By any measure, Ligand has a monstrous portfolio of drugs in the lab and clinic, and what do you expect for 10 bucks anyway? If this stock has a relapse, or even stays around 10 where it is building an impressive base, I'm going to load up. By the way, their annual meeting is May 20, 1999 in La Jolla, California, and I just may go there to get that special insight you sometimes get when you're there in person. Now I'm excited. I've got Ligand fever! Stay tuned.

The Market Pro - May 18, 1999

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