Feuerstein's Biotech-Stock Mailbag

BOSTON -- The Biotech Mailbag marches on, even with a Thanksgiving turkey hangover.

This week: Pipex Pharmaceuticals(PP)

Hythiam(HYTM)

Amgen(AMGN)

Isis Pharmaceuticals(ISIS).

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Anand J. writes to ask about Pipex Pharmaceuticals:

"Any thoughts on this company with several late-stage drugs? Their lead drug Coprexa is very close to an [FDA] filing. Also, management holds a lot of the company stock and runs a tight ship, which is always a good sign."

Regular readers know that I place a lot of emphasis (perhaps too much) on the quality and trustworthiness of management. This is especially important in small-cap, thinly traded biotech stocks like Pipex.

Steve Kanzer runs Pipex and is the largest shareholder, owning just under half the company. This is a photo montage from Time that includes a shot of Kanzer taken last May during an FDA advisory panel meeting convened to discuss a drug from Dor BioPharma(DORB), where Kanzer was vice chairman at the time. He has since resigned from Dor's board.

Scroll to photo No. 4 to see Kanzer being physically restrained and forcibly removed from the meeting. Perhaps he had too much coffee that day. I hope so, but I have my doubts. Suffice to say, he's not exactly high-quality biotech management material in my book.

Kanzer factored into another old story of mine on Dor, which also makes me feel uneasy about his leadership.