CEO Interview: Intellect Neurosciences, Inc. - Dr. Daniel G. Chain

• On 4:22 pm EDT, Tuesday October 20, 2009

67 WALL STREET, New York - October 20, 2009 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Biotechnology Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This 70-page feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Heightened M&A Activity - Trend Toward Orphan Disease Drug Development - Generic Drug Competition - Current Length Of FDA Approval Process - Ownership Ego Preventing Shareholder Returns - IPO And Secondary Offering Window Opening - Big Pharma R&D Pipeline - Decreased Clinical Development Risk - Impact Of Health Care Reform - Convergence Of Large-Cap Biotech And Pharmaceutical Companies - Easier Credit For Small Cap Biotech Companies - Developments In Cancer Chemotherapeutics - Gene Delivery Technology

Companies include: ADVENTRX (ANX); Abbott Labs (ABT); Advaxis (ADVX); Amedisys (AMED); Amgen (AMGN); Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN); Antares Pharma (AIS); BioDelivery Sciences (BDSI); Biogen Idec (BIIB); Biomarin (BMRN); Boston Scientific (BSX); Bristol Myers (BMY); CVS Caremark (CVS); Celgene (CELG); Cerner (CRN); Cerus (CERS); Coke (KO); CombiMatrix (CBMX); Coventry Health Care (CVH); DARA (DARA); Eisai (ESALY); Eli Lilly (LLY); GenVec (GNVC); Gilead (GILD); GlaxoSmithKline (GSK); Health Management Associates (HMA); Human Genome Sciences (HGSI); Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH); Intellect Neurosciences (ILNS.OB); InterMune (ITMN); International Stem Cell (ISCO.OB); Javelin Pharmaceuticals (JAV); Johnson & Johnson (JNJ); Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (KERX); Kraft (KFT); MAP Pharmaceuticals (MAPP); Medco (MHS); Merck (MRK); Merit Medical (MMSI); Novartis (NVS); Novelos (NVLT.OB); Novo Nordisk (NVO); Nutrisystem (NTRI); OSI Pharmaceutical (OSIP); Orexigen (OREX); Pepsi (PEP); Pfizer (PFE); Rite Aid (RAD); Schering-Plough (SGP); Takeda (TKPHF); Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA); Viropro (VPRO.PK); Walgreens (WAG); Wyeth (WYE); XOMA (XOMA); ZIOPHARM (ZIOP).

In the following brief excerpt from the 70-page report, Dr. Daniel G. Chain, CEO of Intellect Neurosciences, Inc., discusses the outlook for the sector and for investors.

TWST: As our population ages, is there an increased interest in Alzheimer's research?

Dr. Chain: I think there is. In the last few years, there have been various celebrities who have been afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, and that helped to boost awareness among the public as to this disease really can affect anybody. And so Rita Hayworth, for example, suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and her daughter has done a tremendous amount through the Alzheimer's Association to promote the awareness of the disease. Rita Hayworth was very young - I think she was in her 50s when she got Alzheimer's disease. I think there is a general increased awareness. And it's a disease where there are a number of risk factors, but by far the most important is age. If we live long enough, chances are we'll all develop Alzheimer's disease. And generally it starts around the age of around 65, and then it doubles in frequency every five to 10 years. So 40% of the population entering their ninth decade have Alzheimer's disease, which is a massive problem. There are a lot of people, such as Rita Hayworth and many others, who developed the disease much younger. People can develop Alzheimer's in their 40s even, and usually there is a genetic predisposition for early onset Alzheimer's disease, which is not so obvious in late onset, but it is a huge problem. Alzheimer's lasts an average of eight years but can be anything from eight years to 20 years, and it has such a devastating impact not just on the victims but on their families. It's one of the major health issues I think that we face in the developed world today.

TWST: You talked a little bit about the partnerships with some of the drug companies. What about academic associations?

Dr. Chain: Yes, as I said, we launched a part of our technology from universities that we have collaborated - I mean during the early stages of the licensing, we had active collaboration with academia. But as the products develop and mature, and become real drug products, we used the academic collaborations less. But we're always looking at new opportunities. And for biotechnology, most of those come out of academia one way or another. So we keep our eyes open, and we have contacts with a lot of the tech transfer offices of the universities, and we are always open to new opportunities.

TWST: You mentioned you are also looking at therapies for Parkinson's Disease. How do you select which therapies to explore?

Dr. Chain: We select therapies through the mode of action of the drug. We have this drug and the more we work on it, the more we learn about how it actually exerts its effect. That gives us insight as to the type of diseases that one might go after. So going back to the academic collaborations, that's certainly an area where we do have collaborations to help identify additional disease indications for drugs that we have in the portfolio. We've had a number of those types of collaborations; we start by having discussions with key experts in a field on a drug or therapeutic. Then we work with that expert to test the drug for a particular disease indications.

TWST: How do you see your company developing over the next several years?

Dr. Chain: If all goes well with bapineuzumab, that drug will be on the market in three years time, and we should be one of the very few cash-positive biotech companies. And we would hope that revenues from the royalties from bapineuzumab and from other drugs, such as the Phase II drugs and so on, will support an expansion of our R&D activities and allow us to bring additional products through to market. We also expect that we would partner the products that we are currently developing internally with major pharmaceutical companies. So we are in constant discussions both on the preclinical and clinical programs. We get approached by major pharma companies interested in what we are developing. I think there is a reasonably high anticipation that each of these programs will be licensed to major pharma a long time before they are ready for the market.

The Wall Street Transcript is a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This 70-page special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online .

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