Jason Chew In their heyday, big biotech companies rivaled some Big Pharma companies in market capitalization and epitomized innovation in pharmaceutical development. At the time of its acquistion by Roche, Genentech was valued at $106 billion. Amgen at one time reached a valuation of over $100 billion, Gilead- over $50 billion. Excluding Genentech, the top […]
GSK and Anthera: Novel Treatments for Cardiovascular Disease
Jason Chew The cardiovascular disease (CVD) market is worth approximately $100 billion today and makes up 12% of all global pharmaceutical sales. Unit sales of medicines for CVD are growing, but patent expirations for drugs such as Lipitor will hold revenues down. The advent of statins in the treatment of CVD was an incredible advance […]
A New Era In HCV Drug Development
Jason Chew(Featured in HCVAdvocate.org) Pegylated interferon plus ribavirin is the current standard of care for HCV treatment. However, it is a 48-week treatment and is only effective in about 50% of patients. On top of that, patients must deal with the inconvenience of injections and side effects that include fatigue, depression, anemia, and rash. Now, […]
Vivus Investors Flee to Arena Pharmaceuticals
Jason Chew Vivus shares tanked after an expert panel voted 10 to 6 against approving its obesity drug, Qnexa. The panel was particularly worried that Vivus only had one year data for its drug- not long enough in its opinion to gather long term safey data in light of Qnexa’s CNS and Cardiovascular side effects. Qnexa […]
Gilead: Undervalued
Jason Chew Gilead’s stock has been in a funk. In the last three months, it has dropped 24% from about $46/share to about $35/share, this compares to a 15% drop for the Biotech HOLDERs index. It now has a PE of 11.1, lower than Pfizer, Novartis, and Sanofi Aventis, while having far higher growth and […]
Why Arena’s Lorcaserin Will Not Be Used In Combination With Phentermine
Jason Chew It is tempting to believe that once Lorcaserin has been approved, it will be used off-label in combination with phentermine to create a safe and efficacious version of Fen-Phen, the once popular diet drug. This is not to be the case. Some history:Fenfluramine, the “Fen” in Fen-Phen, a potent agonist of 5-HT2B receptors, […]
Fail Early, Fail Fast- A Recipe For Failure
Jason Chew The mantra for big Pharma is to fail early and fail fast in preclinical studies, then push compounds out as quickly as possible into first-in-human testing, and gather as much information as possible to determine if it is likely to succeed before putting it into expensive Phase III trials. It sounds good, but […]
Celgene- On An Acquisition Spree
Jason Chew During the last decade, Celgene has been one of the best performing stocks. With a market cap in the year 2000 of just $2.4 billion, it has grown to become the third largest biotech company behind Amgen and Gilead, sporting a $22.9 billion market cap; however, that is down from its recent high […]
George Scangos Named Biogen Idec’s CEO- Not Entirely a Head Scratcher
Jason Chew June 30, 2010- Geoge Scangos from Exelixis was officially named CEO of Biogen, replacing James Mullen who retired June 8 under pressure from the board. He has biologics experience from Bayer and has been an R&D head. However, he is probably best known as a dealmaker. At Bayer he drove a large in-licensing […]
Calistoga Pharmaceuticals and Plexxikon- Two Biotechs to Keep an Eye On
Jason Chew Calistoga and Plexxikon are on the leading edge of two of the hottest targets in drug development today. Both are privately held. Seattle based Calistoga Pharmaceuticals was founded when Icos was acquired by Eli Lilly for its Erectile Dysfunction drug, Cialis. Former scientists acquired IP from the company in 2007 that formed the basis […]
Bristol-Myers Squibb- High Dividend, Zero Growth
Jason Chew With a 5% dividend, Bristol-Myers Squibb provides one the highest yields you can find. This makes BMY a very attractive stock for income investors, especially considering today’s near-zero interest rate environment. There are however, a couple hiccups for investors to be aware of- Bristol is set to lose patent protection on its best-selling […]
Anthera Pharmaceuticals- IPO, What’s Next?
Jason Chew After the 2000 bubble and crash, the biotech IPO has finally begun to crack open a bit. First, Ironwood tested the waters in February with the largest IPO in two years. Anthera soon followed March 4, raising just $37.1 million after cutting its IPO price from the $13-$15 range to just $7. An […]
Cubist vs. Hatch-Waxman
In 2003, Cubist was granted approval for its novel antibiotic, Cubicin, for complicated skin and skin structure infections by Gram-positive bacteria, including drug-resistant strains. Over the next couple years, the stock doubled from about $10 to $20. The stock has languished in the $20 trading range for nearly five years now. There have been some […]
Targacept- Ready to Take Off
Jason Chew Targacept is a company focused on CNS diseases and disorders, targeting Neuronal Nicotinic Receptors (NNRs). As a company spun off from R.J Reynolds and still located in Winston-Salem, it knows a thing or two about this subject. NNRs are ion channels that open in response to the binding of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine allowing […]
Curis Drug GDC-0449 Fails Colorectal Trial
Jason Chew Curis released results today for its hedghog pathway inhibitor GDC-0449 in a pivotal Phase II colorectal trial run by Roche. The company said its drug failed to extend the time of disease progression or death in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Curis stock plunged from yesterday’s close of $3.26 to $1.69, a 48% drop. This […]
Ariad is Set For Success
Jason Chew For years, much of Ariad’s value had been tied to its mTOR inhibitor, Ridaforolimus. Ridaforolimus is an orally bio-available analog of Rapamycin- an immunosuppresent discovered decades ago- the “R” in mTOR. Thus far, there are two other analogs, or Rapalogs, as they are called, approved in oncology indications ahead of Ridaforolimus, the first-to-market […]
Genomic Health- Possible Takeover Candidate
Jason Chew Genomic Health is a pure-play oncology in-vitro diagnostics company with approved products and a pipeline to drive future growth. It fits in well with the growing importance of personalized medicine in the pharmaceutical industry. Personalized medicine is comprised of two parts- the drug, and the diagnostic, a combination sometimes referred to as Dx/Rx. […]
Celldex Sets it Straight at ASCO
After Celldex’s flubbed pre-ASCO abstract release led investor to question interim Phase II data for its cancer vaccine CDX-110 (PF-04948568), also with the generic name Rindopepimut, they made sure to get things straight at ASCO. As a reminder, the abstract stated 70% of patients on drug were alive and progression free at 5.5 months. This […]
Vivus Has a Hit in Qnexa
Obesity has a high prevalence in the US and is now frequently cited as being a national health issue. It is on the rise in almost every industrialized and some industrializing nations. There are currently no blockbuster weight loss drugs due to lack of efficacy, though many have failed due to unwanted side effects. Some […]
Investment Opportunities in Women’s Health
The next several months will be an exciting time for the women’s health space, with several important events that may represent an opportunity for investors. Most notably, Pfizer (PFE) has completed data collection for it’s 2186-patient study of Pristiq for the treatment of vasomotor symptoms, more commonly known as hot flashes. Wyeth, now part of […]
