The 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual meeting[link] will take place from June 1st to 5th in Chicago. This is the world’s largest meeting of oncology professionals where some of the industry’s most important data presentations will take place. With conferences like these, come the abstracts releases for presentations; this year abstracts will […]
POZN – Focusing on PA32540
POZN: Focusing on PA32540 In Pozen’s last earnings call on February 28, CEO John R. Plachetka told analysts top-line results originally projected for the first half of this year, are now expected in mid-March. Refresher: PA32540 is Pozen’s aspirin/omeprazole co-formulation for the prevention of NSAID-associated upper gastrointestinal (UGI) toxicity. It contains 325 mg aspirin and […]
TZYM – Pivotal Results Approaching
TZYM: Pivotal Results Approaching Durham, North Carolina’s Tranzyme Pharma is a small biotechnology company focused on the development of novel treatments for Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. Its main product is Ulimorelin for post-operative ileus (POI), a Ghrelin agonist designed to aid the recovery of GI function after bowel surgery. It is set to report results from […]
Updates from the Citi Global Healthcare Conference
The annual Citi Global Healthcare Conference was held February 27-29, 2012, and as always we listened in on the webcasts to identify key takeaways for Chimera Research Group shareholders. These write-ups may be brief due to overlap with comments at other recent investor conferences – see links below. Amarin $AMRN (Leerink Swann notes – company overview) “We […]
ANTH – A look at Anthera’s VISTA-16 and PEARL-SC studies
The recent corporate update[link] from Anthera Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: ANTH) warrants further input on our part. Antera revealed more detail about 2 important upcoming catalysts with respect to their lead programs, Varespladib methyl (A-002) for acute coronary syndrome and Blisibimod (A-623) for systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). Notably, Varespladib’s VISTA-16 ACS study has a Data and Safety Monitoring […]
Could Medivir Be The Next HCV Buyout Target?
Could Medivir Be The Next HCV Buyout Target? Medivir is a small, but highly productive Swedish biotech with a deep pipeline consisting mostly of anti-viral candidates. The most prominent of these is TMC435, an NS3/4 protease inhibitor the company is developing in partnership with Tibotec, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, for the treatment of hepatitis […]
Updates from the Leerink Swann Global Healthcare Conference
The annual Leerink Swann Global Healthcare Conference was held February 15-16th, 2012. Several companies that I follow for BiotechDueDiligence and Chimera Research Group presented, and I will summarize the highlights below. Isis Pharmaceutical $ISIS (Archived Chimera content – Pipeline Notes) KYNAMRO (mipomersen) Genzyme/Sanofi are preparing for launch this year. EU application was filed July 2011. […]
NVS – Novartis $440 Million Deal With Enanta- A Shift Away From Nucs
Novartis $440 Million Deal With Enanta- A Shift Away From Nucs The HCV landscape took another turn Tuesday with the announcement that Novartis (NYSE:NVS) had agreed to pay Enanta Pharmaceuticals $34 million upfront and up to $406 million in milestones for their Phase I ready NS5A inhibitor, EDP-239. If not for the HCV setting, this […]
VVUS – Vivus & the FDA; Understanding the Advisory Committee
Our Previous Coverage: Initial Report – 12/16/11 Quick Update 1 – 01/09/12 Last week, the FDA released the briefing documents for an upcoming Advisory Committee meeting set to discuss Vivus’s Qnexa, an investigational compound for the treatment of obesity. Our team combed through over 400 pages of material, in an effort to synthesize this data […]
ARIA – Update on Ariad Pharmaceuticals
Below we have an update on ARIAD Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: ARIA) that includes our take on the Ponatinib data at ASH 2011, Ridaforolimus PDUFA thoughts, fourth quarter and full year 2011 updates. Ponatinib At ASH 2011, one of the main presentations to be at was ARIAD’s Ponatinib update,“Initial Findings from the PACE Trial:A Pivotal Phase 2 Study […]
Quick updates from BIO CEO & Investor Conference
The annual BIO CEO & Investor conference was held February 13-14th in New York, a key forum for small biotech companies, especially those that do not receive an invite to the JP Morgan conference in January. Below are some very quick notes from a number of presentations; be sure to note some changes in the […]
INCY – 2011 Q4 Report- Results and Analysis
INCY 2011 Q4 Report- Results and Analysis 2/15/2012 Incyte Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INCY) reported Q4 and full 2011 financials Wednesday morning. Results were pretty much in-line with analyst expectations. Despite management’s repeated statements that uptake of their newly approved myelofibrosis treatment, Jakafi, will be gradual, there are signs that this could be a big year for the […]
SGEN – 2011 Q4 Report: Adcetris Launch On Track
SGEN 2011 Q4 Report: Adcetris Launch On Track 2/13/2012 Well, that certainly didn’t seem to go well. On a day when Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN) saw its stock jump 12% on better than expected sales guidance of its macular degeneration treatment Eylea, Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN) stock tumbled 5% the next day for only meeting quarterly revenue estimates. […]
CELG – Key events for Celgene in 2012
For the most part, investors in Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) have been fully focused on their blockbuster drug, Revlimid. Celgene recently reported 2011 full year Non-GAAP net sales of $4.6 billion, net income of $1.75 billion(or EPS of $3.79), coming largely from the spectacular growth of Revlimid. With full year 2011 REVLIMID sales of $3.2 billion, […]
MYRX – Myrexis update following earnings release
Myrexis $MYRX (spun off from Myriad Genetics $MYGN and formerly known as Myriad Phamaceuticals), announced fiscal second quarter 2012 earnings on February 9, 2012. A very brief webcast was held, though there was no question and answer session (it was not clear whether there was no one on the line to ask a question, or […]
ANTH – Catalysts Approaching
ANTH: Catalysts Approaching Background: Anthera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ANTH) began by in-licensing the anti-inflammatory compounds A-001 and prodrug A-002 from Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) and Shionogi & Co. in 2006. The company gained worldwide rights to the these sPLA inhibitors, except for Japan, which was retained by Shionogi. A-002, the orally available prodrug of A-001, has completed Phase […]
MDVN – ASCO GU Update
Last night, the abstracts for clinical trials presenting at the 2012 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. For now, we want to focus on the most important abstract: Medivation’s (NASDAQ: MDVN) MDV3100 Phase III AFFIRM study of men with castration-resistant prostate cancer(CRPC) that were previously treated with docetaxel. After reviewing the abstract, we believe MDV3100 will replace […]
SNMX – Initiating Coverage on Senomyx
Introduction to Senomyx Senomyx $SNMX is unique from every one of the other companies we cover – while SNMX uses the same tools and techniques of biotech and pharmaceutical drug discovery, they apply these efforts to the discovery of novel food and beverage ingredients. Senomyx develops high throughput assays to screen large compound libraries for […]
CLSN – Quick Take- It’s Bear Territory
CLSN: Quick Take- It’s Bear Territory Overview: Celsion is developing a drug called Thermodox, a heat labile liposomal form of the chemotherapy doxorubicin. Investors are mainly interested in the HEAT trial, a multinational trial in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) comparing Thermodox with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) versus RFA alone. The Wrong Endpoint: It does not […]
INFI – Hedgehog inhibitor fails phase 2 trial in pancreatic cancer
Infinity Pharma $INFI announced on January 27th that it was halting a randomized phase 2 trial of the Hedgehog inhibitor saridegib (IPI-926) in metastatic pancreatic cancer, sending the stock down by about 40% to around $6.00 (~$160m market cap). I’ll recap what happened and what is next for INFI based today’s conference call as well […]
