SEED MONEY; STOCKS RISE ON POTENCY PELLETS.Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer In a dingy dingy used as a description of fleece wool; the wool is lacking in brightness. , one-story brick building on the edge of Van Nuys, white-coated lab technicians are helping men with cancer stay sexually active. The techs work for North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. Scientific Instruments Inc., one of three firms that supply radioactive ``seeds'' used in a new, minimally invasive treatment for prostate cancer prostate cancer, cancer originating in the prostate gland. Prostate cancer is the leading malignancy in men in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in men. . The growing popularity of the procedure, known as brachytherapy, has pushed North American's share price up more than 1,000 percent over the last year, making it the fastest-growing stock in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . And analysts say that as word of brachytherapy spreads, the firm's share price will continue to be a prime beneficiary. ``We think the company could earn a dollar or more (per share) in 1999, so we'd be talking about a stock in the $40 range in the not-too-distant future,'' said analyst John Calcagnini at CIBC CIBC Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CIBC Centres Interinstitutionnels de Bilan de Compétences CIBC Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (Trinidad) CIBC Commercial International Brokerage Company Oppenheimer in West Los Angeles
Not bad for a company that 18 months ago traded at $1.25 and earned all its money in the relatively mundane world of nuclear device calibration. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men. It was diagnosed more than 334,000 times last year and kills an estimated 42,000 American men annually. The typical treatment currently is radical prostatectomy Radical prostatectomy Surgical removal of the entire prostate, a common method of treating prostate cancer. Mentioned in: Prostate Cancer radical prostatectomy , in which most or all of the diseased gland is surgically removed. While better than 80 percent of prostatectomies are effective at halting a cancer's spread, the procedure causes impotence impotence (im`pətəns), inhibited sexual excitement in a man during sexual activity that, despite an unaffected desire for sex, results in inability to attain or maintain a penile erection. in most men, and incontinence in 30 percent to 40 percent. Surgery costs $20,000 to $30,000 and requires four to six weeks of recovery time. In brachytherapy, 40 to 100 rice-sized titanium capsules containing radioactive iodine radioactive iodine n. Any of the radioisotopes of iodine, especially I131, I125, or I123, used as tracers in biology and medicine. or palladium pellets are inserted into a man's prostate using a long, hollow needle. Once in place, the capsules deliver a sustained dose of radiation to the prostate, killing fast-dividing cancer cells cells once believed to be peculiar to cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and distinguished only by peculiarity of location and grouping. See also: Cancer , but leaving normal tissue largely unaffected. That usually means men can continue to get erections and control their bladders. Having the seeds inserted is not a particularly pleasant experience, conceded North American founder and Chief Executive Mike Cutrer, but neither is having a prostate removed. Recovery time for brachytherapy is two to three days spent at home, and the cost is about $12,000. Boosted by an inadvertent endorsement from Intel Chairman Andy Grove, who underwent brachytherapy in 1996, the market for the radioactive seeds more than doubled last year to $63.5 million, up from $27.6 million in 1996, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Calcagnini. By 2000, demand should reach $300 million a year, he said. Sensing the potential of the then-budding therapy, Cutrer in September 1996 committed his firm to a fundamental transformation. Since 1990 North American had produced precisely measured radiation sources for calibrating medical and industrial nuclear equipment. It was a safe, $3.5 million-per-year line of business, but one guaranteed not to grow much over the next decade. Raising money through a private placement, Cutrer built a facility for making iodine-based seeds, gained Food and Drug Administration approval for a prototype and at the start of this year began shipping product. As one of just three makers of the seeds, North American is now poised to grab up to a quarter of the market within the next two years, Calcagnini said. So far, Cutrer said, demand outweighs supply and should for the foreseeable future. The company is producing close to 10,000 seeds per week and by year's end should be capable of making 20,000 weekly. That's less than its main competitor, Amersham International Isotopes Inc., which produces 30,000 to 40,000 a week, but still represents about $20 million in revenue if each seed sells at the current price of $40. ``The stock could go a lot higher,'' Calcagnini said. ``Nobody knows how big the market is.'' SUPERCHARGED su·per·charge tr.v. su·per·charged, su·per·charg·ing, su·per·charg·es 1. To increase the power of (an engine, for example), as by fitting with a supercharger. 2. Shares in North American Scientific Instruments Inc. have gained 986 percent in the past 12 months on expected sales of cancer-fighting radioactive ``seeds.'' May 8, 1998: $30 June 13, 1997: 2 27/64 SOURCE: Daily News research, Bloomberg News CAPTION(S): Photo, Chart PHOTO (Color) North American Scientific Instruments founder Mike Cutrer shows a model of his company's cancer-fighting ``seeds.'' Tina Gerson/Daily News CHART: SUPERCHARGED (see text) Bradford Mar/Daily News |
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