Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SNSS) is expected to report top-line data from the Phase III VALOR study in the third or fourth quarter of this year. The VALOR study is testing vosaroxin plus cytarabine vs. cytarabine alone in patients with first relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (r/r AML), with survival as the primary endpoint. […]
Catalyst Watch – Vol. 2, Edition 14 (5/8/14)
Below are current tactical and strategic thoughts on approaching FDA and clinical trial catalysts for select names. Estimates, values and views are as of the date published (or are noted), are subject to potential future, pre-catalyst revision and are not intended as investment recommendations. Please read our Disclaimer: (1) Catalyst Watch List – Update: AEZS: […]
May 8- The Biotech Draft
While there are some stock specific pieces of news, I want to do something a little different today in honor of the NFL draft. I am going to draft my top 10 stocks. This is assuming that I have no positions at all, so this is not what I would be buying now but if […]
May 7 Biotech Update
I feel like a repeating record in that there is nothing really news worthy today and of course I am a certainly repeating myself in terms of the sector selling. I will just highlight some points that I have talked about before but seem germane for today. First, we are looking at a pretty bifurcated […]
May 6 Biotech Update- The Slow Week Cotinues
It was another pretty blah day in biotech land. I guess this is making up for all the news we have had the past couple of weeks. As I expected, the biggest news of the days is MRK business update (you can download the slides here) and the early verdict is that they are making […]
May 5 Biotech Update
Really not a lot to talk about today. The sector had a decent morning but news flow was relatively low outside of the PFE call. Even that was a little anti-climatic as it did not really add anything that we did not already know. They made the case that an AZN deal does not destroy […]
Catalyst Watch – Vol. 2, Edition 13 (5/2/14)
Below are current tactical and strategic thoughts on approaching FDA and clinical trial catalysts for select names. Estimates, values and views are as of the date published (or are noted), are subject to potential future, pre-catalyst revision and are not intended as investment recommendations. Please read our Disclaimer: (1) Catalyst Watch List – Update: Changes […]
May 2 Biotech Update- The Ups and Downs of the Sector
It was a generally good day in terms of news for the sector (with notable exceptions) but the price action was bad. I think this is going to be the probable going forward in that trading will be very choppy and volatile despite positive or negative news. I do not see this trading as changing […]
Outlook and New Beginnings
With ASCO approaching and some major market moving events, I just wanted to provide some perspective with earnings season almost over. – I get the impression that ASCO will be largely focused on how Bristol-Myers’ competition is looking and whether a viable dosing regimen of Yervoy+Nivolumab in non-small cell lung cancer can be found that […]
April 30 Biotech Update
It is not Tuesday so the selling continues. It seems like the turnaround Tuesdays happen but have no sticking power. At some point that trend will change and that should be an important tell. Whether that happens today or in a couple of months is not clear at this time but as long as the […]
April 29 Biotech Update- A Day of Steady Progress
The rollercoaster continues as we swing up and down in seemingly ever tighter time frames. In some ways, that seems good in that base building is a messy process with fairly rapid swings. I still think the sector needs the macro environment to be at least neutral in order to really set in a base […]
April 28 Biotech Update- Turning Up the M&A Speculation
It was another interesting and good start to the week (until we got into the usual late morning selling). In fact, it seems like we were just talking about a PFE offer for AZN last Monday (oh, wait we were). Is this the reason that the sector is stronger or are we simply getting an […]
April 25 Biotech Update- Approaching a Decision Point
The sector has not particularly strong the past couple of days but neither has it come close to reaching new lows. We had a very strong start to the week, so it is only natural that part of that move needs to be retraced. The question is how much. If we are able to put […]
April 23 Biotech Update- Shooting Out of the Earnings Gate
This was a relatively slow news day (compared to yesterday and Monday) but there is still a lot to talk about with the large cap earnings. The sector did not responsd great but it is still early and I want to see how it closes before judging this reaction. In addition, the market backdrop was […]
April 22- Building Some Momentum
Everyone loves biotechs again. Has the bottom been put in? Perhaps but there was a lot of damage done to the sector, so I would remain selective on buys and not chase any of these early moves. That being said the coast is likely clear for the near term assuming that the large cap biotechs […]
Dissecting the ASCO 2014 abstract titles
Today, the American Society for Clinical Oncology(ASCO) posted a link to the ASCO 2014 meeting planner[LINK]. The planner also includes all of the abstract titles at the meeting. ASCO 2014 is scheduled to take place from May 30th to June 3rd, 2014. Below we list some of our observations on the oral abstracts. We have […]
Catalyst Watch – Vol. 2, Edition 12 (4/18/14)
Below are current tactical and strategic thoughts on approaching FDA and clinical trial catalysts for select names. Estimates, values and views are as of the date published (or are noted), are subject to potential future, pre-catalyst revision and are not intended as investment recommendations. Please read our Disclaimer: (1) Catalyst Watch List – Update: Changes […]
April 21 Biotech Update- Some Good News to Start the Week
You would think the morning after a holiday would not be too busy but I have been running around all morning trying to organize a number of different projects. Luckily there are really only two issues that I wanted to address today as they have import for both individual stocks but also perhaps for the […]
High Cash / Share Stocks in Biotech (Part I)
Due to the sector sell-off in biotech, I thought it may be interesting to provide subscribers a list of high net cash per share stocks (basically cash and equivalents less debt divided by fully diluted shares outstanding). I think this metric is quite useful and (at times – not always) allows one to gauge risk […]
April 16 Biotech Update- An Early Continuation But Still a Fragile Sector
This is another slow day (in terms of news) and this time I promise to keep it short and actually keep it short as the sector is so volatile right now that it is almost impossible to explain why some stocks are going higher and others lower. For instance, I have no idea why ECYT […]