We had a lot of large cap biotech news in terms of the earnings and I wanted to focus on two of them as both had clean beats but also gave some investors pause: CELG and BIIB. 1. BIIB absolutely blew out BG-12 sales. The sell side consensus was $70M and the buyside whisper was […]
July 24- EOD
The news du jour today was SRPT and I want to focus today’s note entirely on it because there is a lot to talk about. In addition, I want to focus on the bearish aspects to the story as I think the bullish case has been fairly well laid out. I would certainly not interpret […]
July 23- EOD
We still seem to be in a period of low news flow in terms of biotech stocks, which is fine as it gives me a chance to catch up on some longer term stories. In particular, I want to spend some time talking about ONTX as it should start trading Thursday and it is an […]
July 22- EOD
It is more of the same in that the market is a little quiet on news. I expected that there would be something interesting to talk about today but not so much. That being said there are a couple of items that I think might be important to note. 1. There has been a lot […]
Week’s Option Activity (7/15~7/19)
The following stocks had notable activity in their options during the past week: $NEPT (7/16): 16,000 (separated into trades of 6,000 and 10,000) AUG 4.0 strike Calls (stock at $3.71) were sold for 0.20 or total proceeds of $320,000. This trade is most likely a covered Call trade of an existing long stock position. $BCRX […]
STML – Follow up on Stemline
In what is becoming increasingly rare these last few months, Stemline made its public debut this January with a drug on track for late stage studies. The company focuses on cancer stem cells, with the clinical candidates SL-401 and SL-701. Today, we will delve into the former, a drug targeted to the IL-3 receptor. Read […]
July 19- EOD
Really seemed like a quiet summer day to end the week. Not much to talk about but a couple of follow up notes from earlier discussions. 1. To continue from my MYGN notes from yesterday, it was confirmed from LH that they will be in the BRCA market. This just builds on the bear case […]
July 18- EOD
Not a ton of news today, so this will be a little bit of a short update but some company specific news with CELG. Outside of that there was the IPO mania that might very well be peaking. I am not convinced that we are in a complete bubble simply because everyone is calling it […]
July 17- EOD
Well, we finally had a biotech merger but not any of the ones we expected. Outside of the small cap buyout, there was not a lot new today. 1. SPPI bought TLON this morning. What is really odd was that I almost wrote about SPPI yesterday but decided against it. When I was thinking about […]
July 16- EOD
Seemed like a slow news day as the markets pulled back to consolidate some of the recent moves. Biotechs were not immune to the move, although some clearly performed better than others. 1. EPZM has shown incredible strength since the IPO. While I like this company’s technology and would like to own some shares, it […]
July 15- EOD
Well, there was not a lot of news out there in biotech land but oddly there is a lot I want to talk about and will work through it over the next couple of days. 1. ARIA Iclusig prescriptions came in weak again with new prescriptions down 26% and only a 9% gain in continuing […]
Week’s Option Activity (7/8~7/12)
The following stocks had notable activity in their options during the past week: $CLDX (7/8): 1,000 AUG 22.0 strike Calls (stock at $21.27) were sold at 1.10 for total proceeds of $110,000. Seller makes money as long as stock trades less than $23.10 by August expiration. This trade is most likely paired with an equivalent […]
July 12- EOD
There have been a couple days of biotech buying, especially it seems in the small cap antibiotic space. Outside of the general performance, there has been some significant news. All in all a couple of interesting days. 1. I was tempted to write a quick update yesterday about the CELG MM-020 results but did not […]
More biotech IPO’s from the first half of 2013
(jointly with Jason Chew and Juan Pedro Rodriguez Serrate) Today, we continue to highlight some recent biotech/life sciences IPOs. Frankly, our earlier post had a much higher quality group of companies seeking to raise money on the public markets. The companies below all have something about their pipeline or lead products that is in some […]
July 10- EOD
Got some interesting news today, which makes this a little more exciting but still not a huge news day (the theme for the week). There will not by a note tomorrow as I need to pick my family up at the airport in the morning and have a doctor appointment in the afternoon. Of course, […]
July 9- EOD
Another slow day, although there was some more interesting news. Biotechs continued to underperform the broader market and I suspect that will be a trend for the next couple of days as the move last week is digested. This is going out a little early because I have to head out before the end of […]
ASTX – Breaking out of the Downtrend Channel
Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ASTX) -Nasdaq ASTX had an epic run that started at the end of February from the low of $2.94, just after two months of price consolidation, and reached a six year’s high of $6.95 on April 30, 2012. From that point, the stock started a deep technical correction, trading in a downtrend channel […]
Week’s Option Activity (7/1~7/5)
The following stocks had notable activity in their options during the past week: $CLDX (7/1): 7,000 JUL 2.50 strike Calls were bought (stock at $3.25) for 0.90 or $630,000. Buyer makes money if stock is greater than $3.40 by expiration. Also, 4,900 AUG 2.50 Calls were sold for 1.00 or $490,000 total proceeds. Seller makes […]
July 8- EOD
Perhaps we were spoiled last week with the ONXX news but this week seems to be getting off to a slow start. There were some decent sized moves in biotech but in terms of news flow it was a little light. We might be in for a little bit of a breather in terms of […]
