This Day In Market History: New York Times Article Suggests Cancer Cure By Year 2000

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened?

On this day in 1998, a front page New York Times report suggested EntreMed was two years away from curing cancer in humans.

Where The Market Was

The Dow finished the day at 9,147.07. The S&P 500 traded at 1,121.00. Today, the Dow is trading at 26,307 and the S&P 500 is trading at 2,917.

What Else Was Going On In The World?

In 1998, NASA began assembling the International Space Station by attaching the American Unity node to the Russian Zarya module. President Bill Clinton denied having “sexual relations” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The average cost of a new car in the U.S. was $17,200.

Wishful Thinking

In the May 3, 1998 Sunday edition of the New York Times, the front page included a story about EntreMed and two newly developed drugs, angiostatin and endostatin, that reportedly cured cancer in mice in laboratory testing. The drugs worked in tandem to choke off the blood supply of tumors.

In the article, Nobel laureate James Watson predicted EntreMed’s lead researcher would cure cancer in humans within two years' time.

When the market opened the next day, EntroMed’s stock skyrocketed 330 percent to as high as $85. Unfortunately, that cancer cure never came to fruition. Today, EntreMed’s stock still trades under the company’s new name, CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: CASI).

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