Feuerstein's Biotech-Stock Mailbag

Well, if people wake up and can't fall back to sleep, why not just take a pill before going to bed that helps them sleep all night? What's the point of waiting to take something after you wake up at 2 a.m.?

To me, indiplon is an insomnia drug in desperate search of a market; there isn't a market in dire need of indiplon.

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Next is Manuel E, who asks for my opinion on Panacos Pharmaceuticals.

How can I say this politely: Panacos is a mess! CFO Peyton Marshall resigned Sept. 24 to "pursue other opportunities and outside personal interests."

That's not a good sign, especially since Marshall was previously the company's interim CEO after then-CEO Skip Ackerman died suddenly in June 2006.

The company's effort to develop its HIV drug beviramat has been saddled with setbacks and delays. A tablet formulation of the drug was shelved last year, forcing the company to work with a liquid formulation while it tries to come up with a way to make a new tablet dosage work. A phase II study of liquid beviramat continues, but again, new data has been delayed. (And no, a liquid drug for HIV is not commercially viable.)

I think beviramat has potential and it's definitely an interesting and novel anti-HIV target (a first-in-class maturation inhibitor) but why mess with this stock until Panacos proves it can actually do something right for a change?

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