September 15 Biotech Update

It still looks to me that the sector is acting less like a sector and more like an aggregation of individual stocks. That is always true (it is not a stock market but a market of stocks) but usually there is a rising (or lowering) tide that raises (or lowers) all boats effect. I find […]

August 31 Biotech Update

The good news and move for the sector continues. In isolation the move higher seems a stretch in terms of the fundamental news that we have seen the past week. The news has been good but we have had weeks with better news and did not have this reaction. Clearly sentiment has changed in the […]

August 30 Biotech Update

The sector and perhaps even broader market look good. One of my fears about the risk of a government shut down and/or debt ceiling might be resolving to a certain extent. There seems to be a growing consensus to do a three month funding, debt ceiling hike, and hurricane Harvey relief in a single bill. […]

August 28 Biotech Update

The long sector nightmare is over and we have a merger Monday and GILD did a deal. There was also some interesting BIIB data that has been loss in the shuffle but let us focus on the deal and what it tells us going forward. 1. Once again let me note that I am a […]

August 23 Biotech Update

The sector had a good day yesterday with an early retracement this morning. I am a little surprised that there is not more weakness in the broader market. Last night Trump threatened a shutdown over the border wall funding, which is one of the risks I have been talking about. Does the market think that […]

July 27 Biotech Update

There is a lot to talk about today, so I will jump right into the most interesting and important news. 1. MYSTIC did not meet the primary PFS endpoint. There was no PFS benefit over chemo with either monotherapy or combination. This is disappointing but not necessarily the end of the story. While the details […]

July 26 Biotech Update

If there has been a consistent theme to earnings this week it has been beat and raise but with stock underperformance. This is not great in the near term as you would prefer good news leading to positive price action but it is not stunning given the recent price action in the sector. If this […]

July 24 Biotech Update

It should be a big week for news but it is starting a little slow, which is not unexpected as the earnings are clustered Tuesday through Thursday. There is some minor news to start the week but it is simply a small appetizer as to what should be a week of news. That being said […]

July 19 Biotech Update

The sector got a big boost from VRTX last night. If it cannot rally off of this news, then buckle your seatbelts and hedge your positions as there is unlikely to be better news anytime soon. The only large catalyst that could match this impact would be a home run for MYSTIC or AXON crushing […]

July 14 Biotech Update

Not a lot of news to end the week, so I will touch on a couple of quick longer term themes. The sector was a little stronger than I would have expected yesterday on the back of the news that medicare will not run out of money until 2029 meaning that IPAB will not be […]

July 12 Biotech Update

Another day with little news (at least early as the NVS ad com is today). This is really the calm before the storm as we are inching closer to the end of the summer and the start of the fall brokerage conferences and we are actually only a couple weeks away from the start of […]

June 23 Biotech Update

We are finally getting a break in the move higher but it has been quiet impressive. There was less excitement in the move than I would have thought, which I see as a sign that a lot were caught flat footed and felt under-invested (although gauging sentiment from twitter might not be the best idea). […]

June 22 Biotech Update

The sector continues to rocket higher as clearly sentiment has reversed. This run likely has more legs than anyone thinks. The sector has been in a massive bear market and churned sideways for about 18 months. We were barely 5% above the upper end of the range and I saw comments about the sector looking […]

June 13 Biotech Update

It is days like this that show why the sector cannot have nice things (as the saying goes). We seemed to be getting some traction and were approaching what has been strong resistance and we get hit with bad news. I said it before and I will say it again, I think people are attributing […]

June 1 Biotech Update

The sector sort of had some positive news yesterday with TSRO putting itself on the proverbial block. This obviously moved TSRO and sector as it reminded people that good things might happen as well. Given that this was meaningful for the sector (and the lack of other news) I want to focus on a couple […]

May 30 Biotech Update

It is ASCO week and the end of a long Memorial Day weekend and there is no news. Usually heading into long weekends there is the expectation/hope that a deal can be finished. Unsurprisingly there are no deals but perhaps a little surprising last week ended with no real excitement or talk of a deal. […]

May 8 Biotech Update

With the earning seasons continuing it is becoming clear that the sector is going to bifurcate. Growth is becoming increasingly difficult to find as the ability to grow through price is all but gone. As such, I expect continued low growth quarters with a selective few biotechs with real growth. This is going to put […]

May 3 Biotech Update

I missed yesterday at home with a sick child. I need to catch up a little on what I missed but I wanted to follow up on the GILD quarter as it is an interesting case for a number of reasons. 1. The revenues were awful. Just about every part of the GILD business is […]

May 1 Biotech Update

This week has another batch of earnings that will likely drive sentiment and price action. So far it seems like the sector is more or less trading in line with the market but perhaps slightly better. There is still some follow up from last week to talk about and one big earning tomorrow. 1. When […]

April 26 Biotech Update

Today is the eye in the center of the storm with a number of earnings tomorrow. It might also be the eye in the center of the North Korean crisis as Trump is meeting with all of the Senate and House to discuss the situation. If we can get through the next couple days without […]