From: Tradingmarkets.com
Pharma Sector - Few Newsmakers Of The Week: Tercica, Adherex, Genta, BMY, J&J, XOMA,
Metabasis, TargeGen, Exelixis, BioE, Iomed, AstraZeneca, And Schering-Plough

Saturday, November 04, 2006; Posted: 06:59 AM

Not To Be Written-off - Exelixis Suspends Clinical Trial Of Cancer Drug Candidate XL999

Thursday, Exelixis Inc. (EXEL | charts | news | PowerRating) suspended enrollment of new patients in the clinical trial program
for the company's cancer drug candidate XL999, after some patients enrolled in the study experienced serious adverse cardiovascular events.

Through the end of September, out of the 117 patients who were treated with XL999, 12 experienced serious adverse cardiovascular events.
Also, 4 of the 14 patients enrolled during October experienced such events. Exelixis therefore decided to suspend enrollment of new patients
pending further review of the data.

XL999 is being evaluated in colon, ovarian and non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, acute myelogenous leukemia and multiple myeloma.
The company currently anticipates that there would be a delay in the clinical program for XL999 of between two weeks and three months.

Following the bad news, Exelixis shares plummeted 14% or $1.31 to $8.03 on Thursday.

With currently eight cancer drugs in clinical development and Phase II trials ongoing for XL784, XL999, XL880 and XL647,
market experts believe that the fate of Exelixis will not be sealed by the failure of a single product.