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 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 […]
March 31 Biotech Update- Is this the Bounce We are Looking For?
So this seems to be the rally we were looking for but that is assuming it does not fade in the afternoon like every other recent rally attempt. So far the rally is a little more broad based and stronger but we have seen this story before. That being said even if this is the […]
January 29- Biotech Update
Would you believe another snow day in Louisiana, which is number three in the past couple of weeks (if you were counting). In general, despite a very weak market , biotechs did fairly well, although it was the large caps holding up the sector with the small caps more mixed. It was nice to see […]
Upcoming Phase 3 trials
With a fresh start to 2014 and the biotech market still very strong, we wanted to examine some upcoming Phase 3 results that will be in focus in the first quarter. Expectations for some of these trials varies widely. We have a blend of small biotech to big pharma. Company: Merck (MRK) and Amgen (AMGN) […]
November 19- EOD
The sector was doing fine yesterday until Icahn dumped on the market and everything got caught in the crossfire. This morning they are doing fine again, so it seems that as long as there is not a larger market selloff biotechs might just get time to catch their footing. Of course, it is still an […]
ASH 2013 Preview on Lymphoid Malignancies
This year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology(ASH13) is highly anticipated for a number of reasons. Pharmacyclic’s Ibrutinib could be viewed as one of the several catalysts sparking the biotech sector’s run the past 2 years. They are now within months of receiving approval for 2 indications where they could benefit patient lives […]
ASH 2013 Preview on Multiple Myeloma
This year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH13) is highly anticipated for a number of reasons. With the general market for the healthcare/biotech sector at all-time highs on the backs of Pharmacyclic’s Ibrutinib (stock is up 1000% since ASH11), Celgene’s Revlimid (~67% of their $6.3B 2013 revenue) and Amgen’s $10.6B deal for […]
October 23-EOD
Not a lot of news in terms of data, although we saw BMY, AMGN, and LLY report earnings. The biotech sector was not as much of a relative underperformer today. Of course, it was still red and weak but today it was red and weak in the context of a broader market selloff. Volumes seemed […]
October 16- EOD
With the approach of an end (as temporary as it is likely to be) of the stalemate in Washington you thought we would be approaching the end of the macro driven market. While I think that is likely true, we still are going to have a knee jerk relief rally before it settles back down […]
CYTK – Flash note on ATOMIC-AHF data
Today, Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Cytokinetics (NASDAQ: CYTK) reported data from the Phase IIb ATOMIC-AHF study of i.v. omecamtiv mecarbil (OM) in patients with acute heart failure. As we hypothesized in this piece, only the high dose met the primary endpoint of improvement of dyspnea (breathlessness) after 48 hours, albeit due to a markedly lower […]
September 3- EOD
I am going to try and cover what was a fairly busy day in biotech land but Tuesday and Thursday will necessarily be shorter than usual. The semester has started again and I spend most of Tuesday and Thursday teaching, which does not provide as much time to write notes but I will still provide […]
August 26- EOD
The week is off to a good start with the end of the ONXX/AMGN saga and some strong moves in biotech land. There is not a lot of stock specific stories, so this is mainly going to focus on some macro issues both within biotech land and outside. 1. I want to start with the […]
August 22- EOD
A quiet day after the relatively interesting data release of INCY yesterday. Of course, it was forced quiet as the market broke for most of the day. There is really not much new to talk about outside of some positive sentiment in the sector (see the ONXX/AMGN discussion below). Outside of that it is more […]
August 19- EOD
Somewhat of a decent start to the week but unfortunately it appears like more of the same in term of general biotech sentiment and news flow. There are a couple of interesting notes but nothing that is significant enough to change the sentiment. 1. The biggest individual mover today was GTXI as it announced the […]
August 15- EOD
Markets started off weak again and biotechs followed down. Outside of the conference call from MNKD there was not much news in terms of data. Perhaps it is this lack of near term catalysts coupled with running too far too fast that is dragging biotechs. Regardless, it is more of the same. 1. The news […]
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 […]
July 2- EOD–> Midday edition
I wanted to follow up on the discussion of yesterday less with an analysis of the potential dance partners for ONXX but more in terms of where do we go from here. Obviously the speculation in mid and small caps space is who will be next. This list could encompass just about every company but […]
July 1- EOD
Today was the fallout of the AMGN bid for ONXX. There are a couple of aspects of it that I want to touch on and go a little further than my article this morning. 1. In my article I tried to cover the companies that I thought had the most compelling reasons to be interested […]
AEGR – Quick commentary on Aegerion
Aegerion has been one of the best performing stocks over the past 6-12 months. This has been driven by the value creation of Juxtapid (lomitapide), a small molecule microsomal triglyceride transfer protein inhibitor, was approved by the FDA and EMA adjunct to a low-fat diet and other lipid-lowering treatments, including LDL apheresis where available, in […]
