Genta drug deal very close
Biotech near deal with large pharma company for cancer drug Genasense.
February 22, 2002: 3:29 p.m. ET
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Biotech company Genta Inc. is very near to completing a large marketing deal for its top drug, cancer treatment Genasense.
"We are in very late-stage negotiations," Raymond P. Warrell Jr., Genta chairman, president and CEO, said Friday.
Warrell would not give details on who the partner might be, but analysts speculated the deal may be with a large European pharmaceutical firm such as Aventis or Roche Group, both of which have strong cancer drug pipelines.
"Those two would make a logical fit, and of those two it would probably be Roche," said Ed Nash, analyst with Commerce Capital Markets.
Another name mentioned as a possible candidate is Pharmacia Corp.
"It's hard to really speculate on these types of things," said Andrew Gitkin, analyst with UBS Warburg. "This company seems to have been working pretty diligently to try and get a partner."
Gitkin said that it has taken Genta (GNTA: down $0.23 to $13.37, Research, Estimates) a little longer than he thought to get a deal, but that it is understandable considering the attacks of Sept. 11 and the controversy concerning ImClone's cancer drug Erbitux.
"It could be a European deal, it could be a global deal as well, and we think it's likely to occur in the second quarter," said Peter L. Ginsberg, analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.
Warrell declined to give a time frame for the deal's announcement.
"There's no advantage to our side of the table to be pre-announcing timetables," he said. "That would be something that would only be harmful to the conclusion of the negotiation process on terms that would be maximally favorable to Genta."
Genasense is classified as an antisense drug, a class which has been around for a long time but had some negative trials in the mid-1990s.
Warrell said the positive results for Genasense could spell the launch of more antisense treatments.
"We think the success of this drug is in fact going to be the signal for the re-emergence of antisense technology broadly," he said.
He said results from three concurrent Phase III trials should be out this year and if the news is positive the drug should launch in the first half of 2003. 
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