On May 2, British Biotech (BBIOY; Oxford, UK) released some good news concerning its troubled phase III cancer trials of marimastat, a matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor (MMPI). Although interim analyses of marimastat against non-small-cell lung cancer were unfavorable—resulting in the termination of that trial—a study involving pancreatic cancer patients has shown positive results and will continue. In addition, a follow-up examination of a marimastat trial against gastric cancer that failed in January 1999 has revealed positive long-term survival results, particularly in patients who had previously received chemotherapy and those who did not have metastatic disease at diagnosis. Chief Financial Officer Tony Weir says these data offer a “glimmer of hope” after essentially writing off MMPIs as cancer therapeutics (Nat. Biotechnol. 19, 297, 2001). Shares were up 7% to $2.95 the day after the news.