January 27 Biotech Update

It is amazing how quickly sentiment can change. Last week I was noting the shifts and the expectations for a correction. This was certainly needed but I think the speed of the move has less to do with fundamentals and more to do with jittery investors. Nobody wants to be the last one to sell, […]

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) […]

January 22nd Biotech Update

I feel like a record stuck skipping over the same part but there has not really been anything new in the market this week either from a macro sense or even at the individual level. The sector was strong in the morning basically on the backs of the large caps (see GILD later in the […]

November 5- EOD

The morning looked bad but the sector came back a little. There was some sporadic buying of oncology names but nothing major. It will be very interesting to see how the sector responds to the ASH abstracts. Obviously there will be winners and losers but the question in my mind is how will the PPS […]

CLDX – A look at CDX-1127

Celldex Therapeutics (CLDX) has one of the most anticipated data releases amongst small biotech companies this fall. They are scheduled to present data from their Phase 1 dose-escalation trial of a CDX-1127 (CD27, a T-cell stimulator) at the annual meeting of the Society for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer(SITC), November 7-10th. We will also likely see some […]

October 29- EOD

Well, it seemed like an odd day for the sector in that it was almost directionless. This is not to say that there were not moves among individual stocks but we are finally starting to see them move on merit and less on sector sentiment. I think this is a good sign and hopefully we […]

Datasets in focus at IASLC this weekend

This weekend is the  15th annual World Conference on Lung Cancer, sponsored by tge International Assoc. for The Study Of Lung Cancer (IASLC). It takes place Sunday October 27th through Wednesday 30th (Site). Abstracts can be found here. In particular, we want to speak briefly about 7 presentations. PD1 inhibitors Bristol-Myers (BMY), Merck (MRK) and Roche (RHHBY) […]

Merck – Quick Chart Review

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) -NYSE For the first time since March 1st, MRK’s price dropped below its 200-Day Moving Average. This is worth a deeper look at the price action and the indicators are showing a “Bullish Divergence” and within the oversold zone. Merck will take part at the (IASLC) the 15th World Conference on […]

October 1- EOD

It was a fairly busy day today in biotech land the sentiment certainly appears more positive. They participated in the market rally even though most were not big losers in the recent macro selling. This is certainly positive going forward. I want to focus on the MRK news as it touches on a lot of […]

September 27- EOD

Not a particularly news rich day but the sector seemed to continue its momentum from yesterday and seemed to outperform the general market with a lot of green on a red day. 1. Well, it looks like JNJ is tossing another wrench in ECYT trials with more doxil supply problems. ECYT noted that they have […]

What to look for at AASLD 2013

We wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the presentations at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. This conference takes place Friday, November 1st thru Tuesday, November 5th and covers . Research interest in new therapies against the hepatitis C virus(HCV) still remain high, although […]

Upcoming Fall medical conferences

With Fall approaching quickly, we head into one of the busier periods of medical conference presentations. In the next month, we have several widely followed conferences approaching and abstract releases for a number of others. Below are some of the key conferences that we will be tracking with some analysis to follow in subsequent articles. […]

Biggest takeaway from ASCO 2013

With wrapping up our coverage of the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, I feel compelled to elucidate a point that we tried to hammer home with our preview of this meeting. I attended at least a dozen presentations covering various indications, but nothing compared to the sessions on the developments […]

June 4- EOD

Quite day, more or less. Some interesting ASCO news with some larger pin action. Other than that I did not see anything of particular interest. Bios were generally weak and perhaps this is the start of the long awaited biotech correction but we have had many false starts before. What is different this time is […]

June 3- EOD

Happy mid-ASCO (although most of the data is already presented). Some interesting ASCO and, surprisingly, non-ASCO stories. 1. I added to my SGEN position today (at $33.67). It has been under pressure recently and I’ve been looking to add over the summer in anticipation of HL data at ASH. I am intimately aware of the […]

Flash takes from ASCO 2013 Day 1/2

With Day 1 and 2 of ASCO 2013 completed, we wanted to review some of our main conclusions from the presentations and posters we reviewed. We will try our best given the vast amount of dense information covered during this time. As we previously said, this was largely a conference dominated by newsflow from big […]

ASCO2013 Take Three: PD1 antibodies will have significant presence

This is our third piece in a series of articles on developments expected at ASCO 2013[1,2]. Currently, we think the majority of the exciting presentations at ASCO 2013 will be from clinical candidates at big pharma. In particular, anti-programmed death-1 monoclonal antibodies(anti-PD-1) like Bristol Myers’ Nivolumab(BMS-936558), Merck’s Lambrolizumab (MK-3475), GSK’s AMP-224, Teva/CureTech’s CT-011 and Roche/Genentech’s […]

AASLD 2012 – An HCV Primer

It seems EASL has just ended, but AASLD is fast approaching, coming mid November. For HepC watchers, here is an overview of some companies that will be presenting at the Liver Meeting. Despite the tremendous progress made to-date, new advances keep it exciting. Gilead: Acknowledged leader in the race to bring an all-oral drug combination […]