erations amounted to $58 million, down 25% from the same period last year. However, the company took nonrecurring and extraordinary charges in the period totaling $620 million after taxes, giving the com pany a net loss of $543 million. Pre tax, the unusual and extraordinary charges cost the company $1.06 bil lion, with $1.01 billion associated with its restructuring and layoff pro gram. The biggest slug of this is from fixed asset writedowns and writeoffs totaling $678 million. An other $187 million is in related shut downs and environmental costs. The two smaller portions are the per sonnel reduction costs, $78 million, and inventory writedowns, $75 million. Of Carbide's operations, petro chemicals is going to be hit hard by the restructuring, with $312 million of the unusual charges coming in that segment. But hardest hit will be the previously lackluster metals and carbon products segment, ac counting for $430 million of the unusual charges. Carbide chairman and chief exec utive officer Warren M. Anderson tagged a couple of more businesses as divestment candidates. "The poly ethylene businesses in Canada and Brazil, the engineering polymers and composites business, and a sig nificant portion of our real proper ty holdings in Tarrytown, N.Y., have joined the metals business as active divestiture projects, and other bus inesses are under active consider ation," he says. D
Biosynthetic growth hormone sale approved The Food & Drug Administration has approved the sale of a geneti cally engineered hormone for treat ment of children whose pituitary glands don't secrete enough of the natural protein needed for growth. The biosynthetic human growth hormone, named Protropin by its developer Genentech, is the second product of gene-splicing to be ap proved by FDA. The first, human insulin, also was developed by Genentech, although it is licensed for sale by Eli Lilly.
An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 chil dren in the U.S. suffer from growth hormone deficiency, according to the Human Growth Foundation. Un til earlier this year, such children were treated with hormone extracted from the glands of human cadav ers. Distribution of natural hormone was halted by the federal govern ment last spring, however, after questions were raised about possi ble contamination with the rare vi rus that causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob dis ease. Because Protropin is produced by bacteria, contamination with viruses associated with humans is not thought to be possible. Protropin contains the identical sequence of 191 amino acids found in the natural hormone plus an ex tra methionine on the N-terminus of the molecule. Approval of the drug, which had been expected in 1984, was delayed when about 30% of the patients in clinical trials de-
veloped antibodies to the hormone. However, such antibody develop ment has caused no toxicity and is common among patients receiving protein treatments, according to Genentech. Now that growth hormone will be available more readily, some sports medicine specialists are con cerned that the drug will be abused by athletes and others hoping to increase their height and strength. Genentech responds that the com pany will focus its marketing ef forts on pediatric endocrinologists, the physicians who treat most cases of growth hormone deficiency, and that the drug will be distributed only through hospital pharmacies. However, any physician has the au thority to prescribe Protropin for any use. "There's only so much the company can do," says spokeswom an Debra Bannister. "It's up to the physician to limit use." D
Bristol-Myers agrees to buy Genetic Systems Bristol-Myers has agreed in princi ple to buy Genetic Systems, a Seattlebased biotechnology company, for $244 million, or $10.50 per share. The purchase, which could cost Bristol-Myers as much as $294 mil lion if outstanding warrants and op tions are exercised, was negotiated quickly last week after word leaked on Monday that the companies were discussing merger. The rumors sent Genetic Systems' stock price soaring 23% in two days. Analysts see Genetic Systems' portfolio of human diagnostic and therapeutic products giving BristolMyers entry into fast-growing di agnostics markets while fitting well with the pharmaceutical giant's pro grams in anticancer and anti-infectives therapeutics. Genetic Systems, which would operate as a subsid iary, would gain access to funds, expertise in the regulatory approv al process, manufacturing facilities, and established distribution chan nels. Eight months ago, Bristol-Myers paid $12.8 million for a one-third share in Seattle-based Oncogen, a cancer diagnostic and therapeutic research concern. The other equal joint partners are Genetic Systems
and Syntex Corp. of Palo Alto, Calif. Bristol-Myers thus could end up with a two-thirds share of Oncogen. Left up in the air by Bristol-Myers' bid is an August agreement by Ge netic Systems to sell to Syntex, which currently has a 2% stake in the firm, an 18% equity position for $40 million, or $8.50 per share. That deal, like the newer one, is contin gent on approval by Genetic Sys tems shareholders. Syntex, which was unaware of the talks with Bristol-Myers, says it is not yet sure of the impact of last week's agree ment on its plans. Coming a month after Eli Lilly's agreement to take over Hybritech, another biotechnology firm (C&EN, Sept. 23, page 5), last week's an nouncement bolsters a growing sense that biotechnology companies are entering a consolidation phase that will be marked by other acqui sitions. Investors sharing that feel ing pushed up the prices of several other biotechnology firms' stock last week. "People have viewed these companies as on the verge of a new phase of maturity," remarks Linda I. Miller, an analyst at Paine, Web ber. "They may not enter it inde pendently." Π October 28, 1985 C&EN
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