Club Biomed &endash; Meeting Minutes &endash; 15 January, 2003

Welcome and monthly contribution collections. Beth Bolan, Jordan Abbott, & Joe Lamprey, who are interested in joining Club Biomed, sat in on the meeting.

Carlos D. and John W. reported on the status of the virtual portfolios and Club Biomed's real portfolio.

• Virtual Portfolio: up 40% (a sharp drop from last month)
• Random Portfolio: down 5%
• Mutual Fund Portfolio: down 8.98% (a modest loss since last month)
• Club Biomed's real portfolio: down 2% due to a 5% drop in our only stock, PFE
• Carlos also updated members on their current ownership position.
• After the meeting we picked Imclone and Quintiles Transn'l for Random Walk.

Educational presentation: Enrique Mesri presented a slide presentation describing the way drugs are approved. His topics included the roles of the FDA, sponsors, individual investigators, contract research organizations (CROs), and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) in creating a clinical trial. He also spoke about the essential approvals in this process (the IND & the NDA) and he explained the various phases in the trial. Along with Marcus Reidenberg who participated as a discussant, he emphasized the importance of these trials to human health. Trials must be evaluated both in terms of the risks to the patients in the trial and the potential benefits and risks to the population. He also gave an example of real clinical data and how it was interpreted. Markus commented on several aspects of the process, and noted the US was unique in that information from trails held in this country were open to the public and can be found in the FDA web site. This is an important resource for our Club. John concluded the discussion because of time constraints, but noted that there were a number of topics that we should discuss in the future.

Stock presentations: The generics group (which includes Simne, Juliana, Deirdre, Jeanne and Jennifer) responded to some of the concerns expressed by the partners in the last meeting. They listed some of the current products and products that will be brought to the market in the near future. They argued that the company was well managed and that growth was sustainable. Enrique noted that in addition to a generics business, the company had a proprietary product with great potential. Carlos again questioned whether the current cost of the company made it a good investment. As a group, the partners had difficulty addressing this issue. We considered waiting for a drop in the price, but eventually decided that a small position (about 60 shares/$2000 was appropriate). The motion to purchase TEVA was approved by a clear majority of those present.

New business.

• Jordan Abbott reported to the group about his efforts to establish a Biotech Club at Cornell. John suggested that Club Biomed and this new group may be able to collaborate on projects of mutual interest and that the two groups should remain in contact. Those interested in learning more about the new group should contact Jordan at joa2023@med.cornell.edu
• Jordan Abbott, Joe Lamprey, and Elizabeth Bolan were accepted as new partners. Samir Kelfar was removed from the partnership.

Planned Agenda items for February meeting includes:

• Appointment of a stock watcher for Teva
• Report on the Pharmacia purchase by Pfizer
• Presentations on Regeneron (by Neil and Laura)
• Updating of companies followed by partners
• Report from the audit committee (or March)
• Discussion of a policy on written reports and how the quality fo reports can be upgraded

Probable Agenda items for March

• On patents and their use
• Report on Millennium -- submitted by John Wagner