On Good Guys’ Side

Law Moves

Deaths

Corrections or additions?

Life in the Fast Lane

These articles by Barbara Fox were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper

on Wednesday, May 20, 1998. All rights reserved.

Liposome stock shot up more than two points last week.

At the stockholders’ meeting on Thursday, May 14, a shareholder called

attention to the overwhelming publicity given to yet-to-be marketed

antiangiogenic compounds, which suppress growth of blood vessels that

feed tumor cells.

How was Liposome promoting its discoveries, the shareholder asked.

Andrew Janoff, the vice president of research & development, presented

data showing that two of the company’s bioactive lipids have tested

successfully in tumor-bearing mice. The scientific journal Cancer

Research reported that not only does Liposome’s TLC ELL-12 directly

kill tumor cells (at a ratio of up to 1 million cancer cells for every

normal cell) and stimulate the host’s anticancer agent, but it also

acts as its own antiangiogenic agent.

Janoff also discussed how much better Liposome’s proprietary

bromotaxol

performed in mouse trials, compared to the widely used Taxol: "In

a mouse model of human ovarian cancer, all animals treated with

bromotaxol

survived and appeared to be healthy at the end of the year-long trial,

whereas all those treated Taxol died from the disease." He

followed

these optimistic announcements with the traditional caveats about

risk. Liposome stock closed Monday, May 18, at $7.80, up from $5.70

last week.

Meanwhile, on news that Integra LifeSciences Corp. lost $3.3 million

or 10 cents a share for the first quarter of this year, the company’s

stock dropped 60 cents, to $3.60. Last year the firm lost only $1.8

million or 6 cents per share, yet Stuart Essig, Integra’s president

and CEO, optimistically notes that revenues were up 43 percent, to

$4.6 million, compared to $3.2 million in the comparable quarter last

year.

For the U.S. 1 Stock Index, call Faxback at 609-452-7000 and request

document 9950.

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On Good Guys’ Side

When he’s not juggling, or tutoring children in math

and science, or baking cookies, Don Mueller can be found urging small

companies not to be intimidated by large corporate legal departments.

"I would tell small business owners you need not back down,"

says Mueller. "Ask them the same questions they ask you."

Mueller, an entrepreneur with a home office in Monmouth Junction,

is developing a line of science and math products for children. He

is also fighting a lawsuit filed by Kellogg’s Inc., the Battle Creek,

Michigan-based cereal giant. Kellogg’s took offense when it learned

about one of Mueller’s proposed products, Nutri-Brain, a rectangular

cookie stamped with a physics formula. Kellogg’s feels it sounds too

much like its Nutri-Grain cereal bars.

Mueller’s responds that his product has no similarity with its

product.

"They have a legal team that likes to make a lot of money,"

he says. "Ask them questions and try to get answers from them

and you’ll find out quickly how many cases they’ve got going —

many — and use that in court."

Mueller expects not to go to trial for another four months. Kellogg’s

is currently involved in another lawsuit with Exxon, over Exxon’s

use of the tiger — it conflicts with Tony the Tiger of Frosted

Flakes.

"What I’m trying to do is either license or do some private

branding

or launch a product with financing angel money," Mueller says.

His main line of products are called Geometreats, cookies with

geometric

equations on them.

Mueller, 36, went to SUNY Buffalo (Class of 1993), after a stint

playing

professional baseball that ended prematurely because of injuries.

He is finishing his Ph.D in chemistry at Rutgers and also marketing

clay toy prototypes and hand puppets as well as the cookies. Mueller

is literally a juggler. You can see him demonstrating his bounce

juggling

techniques at the Princeton Hospital Fete on Saturday, June 13.

"I have a way of doing too much too quickly," he says.