March 19, 2005: Headlines: COS - Honduras: Service: NGO's: Fund Raising: Business: Diabetes: COS - Guatemala: Libraries: Pharmaceuticals : New York Times: Allen Andersson, who served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the 1960's, has been plowing some of his new fortune into his Riecken Foundation, a charity he named for his wife's parents. It has built more than 20 libraries in remote villages in Honduras and Guatemala.
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March 19, 2005: Headlines: COS - Honduras: Service: NGO's: Fund Raising: Business: Diabetes: COS - Guatemala: Libraries: Pharmaceuticals : New York Times: Allen Andersson, who served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the 1960's, has been plowing some of his new fortune into his Riecken Foundation, a charity he named for his wife's parents. It has built more than 20 libraries in remote villages in Honduras and Guatemala.
Allen Andersson, who served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the 1960's, has been plowing some of his new fortune into his Riecken Foundation, a charity he named for his wife's parents. It has built more than 20 libraries in remote villages in Honduras and Guatemala.
Allen Andersson, who served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the 1960's, has been plowing some of his new fortune into his Riecken Foundation, a charity he named for his wife's parents. It has built more than 20 libraries in remote villages in Honduras and Guatemala.
Investing for a Profit and a Daughter's Health
By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: March 19, 2005
Caption: Allen Andersson's investment in Amylin Pharmaceuticals aided his daughter and made him a substantial profit. Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Time
When Amylin Pharmaceuticals won federal approval on Wednesday for its first drug, executives celebrated by jumping into the reflecting pond at the company's office complex in San Diego. Some also called to thank a little-known software entrepreneur back east in Washington who had helped make it all possible.
The entrepreneur, Allen Andersson, invested in Amylin in early 1999, when the company was facing collapse because the drug, a diabetes treatment called Symlin, failed to demonstrate statistically meaningful effects in two clinical trials.
"We had an actual shutdown plan already mapped out," Joseph C. Cook Jr., the chairman of Amylin, recalled in an interview. "If Allen hadn't brought the money forward, there would have been no other choice."
While Wall Street had written off Symlin, Mr. Andersson thought the drug would help his daughter Rachel, who has diabetes.
"I loved the medicine and the market hated it," he said.
His action ended up being good not only for Amylin and diabetics, but also for him.
Mr. Andersson invested $6 million at a time when Amylin's stock was selling for about $1. He later invested $28 million at prices of $5 or $12 a share, he said.
Yesterday, when the stock closed at $21.06, Mr. Andersson's Amylin holdings, which account for the bulk of his wealth, were worth nearly $200 million. He is Amylin's largest shareholder, with nine million shares, a 9.7 percent stake, according to the company's most recent proxy statement, from last April.
Mr. Andersson, 60, who served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the 1960's, has been plowing some of his new fortune into his Riecken Foundation, a charity he named for his wife's parents. It has built more than 20 libraries in remote villages in Honduras and Guatemala.
Mr. Andersson also has an investment company, Paperboy Ventures, that is backing start-up companies developing electric motors, information technology and medical products. Any profits from those investments, he said, will eventually also go to promote education and democracy in Central America.
Symlin is a synthetic version of a hormone, amylin, that is secreted by the same cells in the pancreas that make insulin. When used with insulin, Symlin can help keep weight in check and reduce the surge in blood sugar that occurs after meals. It was approved for use by people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes who do not achieve adequate glucose control despite using insulin.
Although Wall Street is still not smitten with Symlin, the company's stock rose more than 6 percent to close at $20.76 on Thursday, the first day of trading after the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug.
Yaron Werber, an analyst at Smith Barney, predicted in a report this week that sales of Symlin would reach only $70 million by 2008 because the drug has only a modest effect and requires two or three injections a day in addition to insulin injections.
The drug's label also strongly warns that Symlin's use raises the risk that blood sugar will drop too low, which can cause loss of consciousness. It was largely because of safety concerns that Amylin needed three tries before winning approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Amylin's stock run-up has more to do with investors' anticipation of its second diabetes drug, exenatide, which analysts expect to win approval by April 30. That drug, being developed with Eli Lilly & Company, could become a big seller because it is meant for people with Type 2 diabetes, the most common kind, who are not achieving adequate glucose control from oral drugs.
But if Mr. Andersson had not helped rescue Amylin, exenatide might not have been developed, either.
Mr. Andersson's daughter was found to have diabetes in 1988, when she was 4 years old. He said he stumbled upon references to Symlin in the mid-1990's. He thought it might ameliorate the wild swings in her blood glucose levels. On seven occasions, he said, Rachel's blood sugar dropped too low while she was asleep, causing her to fall onto the floor, moaning.
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state. |
| RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter. |
| Add your info now to the RPCV Directory Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now. |
| March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
| Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week. |
| Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
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Story Source: New York Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Honduras; Service; NGO's; Fund Raising; Business; Diabetes; COS - Guatemala; Libraries; Pharmaceuticals
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