ANALYSTS CHOOSE DREAM PORTFOLIORobert A. Fildes may be gone as Cetus Corp.'s chief executive,but the company holds a prominent place in Fildes' dreamportfolio of biotechnology stocks for 1991.

He deployed $2,000, or one-fifth of the hypothetical $10,000provided participants in BioWorld's 1991 Stock-Picking Contest,into Cetus stock. Fildes explained his position by saying that the"company is an acquisition candidate."

Fildes also pegged as likely top performers in 1991 last year'shigh-flyer, Amgen Inc., because of expected strong productsales, and Genetics Institute for its good prospects for attainingseveral new product approvals and profits.

Fildes is competing with four other biotechnology analysts andBioWorld staffer Patty Fox, who made her random selection bytossing a dart. Together they picked 20 stocks. Amgen was oneof only two companies chosen twice.

The other duplicate, Bio-Technology General Corp., was the solechoice of veteran company investor David Blech. "It's the mostundervalued biotechnology company," said Blech, who has alsoput his real-world money into BTGC.

Denise Gilbert, an analyst with County NatWest Securities, saidthat her top choice, Amgen, offered the strongest fundamentals."With the approval of Neupogen (G-CSF) in the next one to twomonths, the company's earnings will continue to increase atgreater than 50 percent per year."

Richard Bock, a senior vice president of investments with Sutro& Co., put Hana Biologics on his list of four companies becauseits proposed merger with privately held Somatix Corp. couldcreate the first public gene therapy company.

Jim McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter,figures that Calgene Inc. and California Biotechnology Inc.represent two of the industry's most undervalued stocks.

For the contest, stocks were "bought" at Dec. 31 prices andsome trading will be allowed during the year. Rules were keptto a minimum. Contest performance will be tracked eachquarter. Readers are invited to participate in another version ofthe contest. See Monday's edition for rules. -- Rachel Nowak

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.