Approval delay for cancer drug cited in stock's rapid decline.

INVESTORS who bought shares earlier this year in American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc., the genetic drug maker controlled by Los Angeles doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong, don't have much to feel good about these days.

The stock, which hit a 52-week high of $49.19 on March 31. has plummeted nearly 50 percent since then, and was trading just above $25 last week, not far from its 52-week low of $22.65 on Oct. 31.

Company officials have declined to comment on the share price, but American Pharmaceuticals appears to be suffering from a double whammy: stagnant revenues of its core generic drug business and a realization by the market that its proprietary drug candidate Abraxane won't be a revenue producer this year, as the company had anticipated.

American Pharmaceutical is not the only generic drug maker with problems. Other players in that market, such as Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., have seen their stock drop as pressure builds on the industry to keep down drug costs, a leading contributor to medical inflation.

But the company's troubles are complicated by Abraxane, the brand name it has given to a unique formulation for the breast cancer drug paclitaxel. The company claims that its formulation allows the drug to be given in higher doses with fewer side effects, and is looking for approval from the Food and Drug Administration sometime in the fourth quarter.

But just a year ago at least one bullish analyst was predicting as much as $150 million in 2004 revenue for the company from Abraxane, which would have been a significant boost for a

company whose core genetic drug business produced $351 million in revenue last year.