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 […]

May 11 Biotech Update

There are a couple of quick hits that I want to get today as we have some news but we are also getting closer to ASCO. I suspect ASCO will progressively take up more of the discussion, so I do want to place some ideas out there before ASCO gets dissected to death. 1. In […]

May 10 Biotech Update

The news keeps coming in this week as the sector and market looks for a direction. I do not see anything happening that is fundamentally changing the story for the sector, where best case scenario is it performs in-line with market and good catalysts are rewarded. The problem at this point is we do not […]

April 4 Biotech Update

The sector had a little bit of a down draft late yesterday and I suspect that it is related to the news that TrumpCare may not be dead. Clearly there are actions being held to revive the legislation but we are likely a year plus from any real passage even if they are able to […]

March 15 Biotech Update

The PARP wars have ramped up with the AZN data. This was important data for the PARP wars but sort of important for the sector more broadly as this is a new class of drugs that seemingly has an impressive impact on the lives of patients. I think the PCSK9 data later this week are […]

February 24 Biotech Update

Weakness (sort of) continuing in the sector but perhaps that is simply drifting or consolidation after its recent performance. In either case, it still seems like people are unwilling to fully commit to the sector and my early warning signal of generalist entrance (and likely sustained outperformance) will be outperformance of CELG. That is a […]

February 15 Biotech Update

We have some additional news yesterday but nothing that is necessarily positive for the sector. It certainly rallied in the afternoon and I suspect there is enough juice left for that to continue. Of course, we are only one tweet away from a pullback but I guess that is true of every sector and stock. […]

January 27 Biotech Update

We obviously got some news and price action but most of it is explainable and somewhat predictable. I will highlight some of the news and focus on the BMY report as that seems to have generated the most discussion. 1. We had the buyout of ALIOY a lot sooner than I expected at a lot […]

January 20th Biotech Update

We are getting some more offerings as is expected post JPM but they seem slower than usual. In any case, we have more large cap pharma news that is pretty meaningful that I want to focus on today. 1. BMY noted last night that they will not be pursuing accelerated approval for front line NSCLC […]

January 17 Biotech Update

The sector appears to have shrugged off (relatively speaking as to what could have happened) the recent Trump noise on the industry and likely for good reason. It is only a matter of time before the market learns that the President-elect is likely a lot more bark than bite and in the case of the […]

January 9 Biotech Update

I am getting ready to head out to JPM but I wanted to have a quick JPM note this morning. In general, the news has been a little slow as compared to expectations but certainly bullish. I will highlight a couple of the more important stories. 1. We have almost $6B in deals in one […]

January 5 Biotech Update

News is starting to pick up as we approach JPM. This should continue through the weekend. There has not really been anything dramatic today as these early birds tend to be companies that would be overwhelmed by the bigger announcements expected closer to JPM. All in all, the net-net of news this morning has been […]

January 4 Biotech Update

The year continues at two for two with another trial failure but so far the market is shrugging it off. It is not surprising as expectations build for JPM. Usually the Monday of JPM is filled with news but it has been creeping forward a little as some companies are releasing news the week before […]

November 14 Biotech Update

And we continue with the Trump effect in the sector. As I noted before this is going to be a longer term tailwind despite what people argue about the potential transitory nature. Yes, we will not go straight up and yes it is not 100% positive forever but this is a sector that has grossly […]

November 2 Biotech Update

Any selling we see today cannot really be blamed on sentiment or the elections as we had our first day (in my opinion) of fundamentally bad earnings. Up to this point, it seems that the earnings were in-line to better than expectations but certainly not perfect. This is not the case for the big earnings […]

October 25 Biotech Update

Earnings have started and so far nothing great but nothing horrible. In fact there were some notable misses but we may be at the point that misses will rally stocks given how low expectations have fallen. So not only do we need to pay attention to what the earnings say about the fundamentals of the […]

October 19 Biotech Update

There is really nothing to talk about today with a lack of news. I suspect we will be weak into the final debate and stretch run of the campaign. Recent polls are showing the potential of a wave election which would at the very least give the democrats the Senate with an increasing chance of […]

October 10 Biotech Update

It is a solid positive reaction to ESMO across the sector (with some notable exceptions). While there are number of potential topics, I want to focus on one as it has very broad implications that we need to watch not just in the near term but longer term. 1. BMY front line data were an […]

October 4 Biotech Update

Today is certainly a better start. It seems that the sector is trading to a certain extent on macro issues with the DB concerns leading to risk on versus risk off action. The sector will always be a victim to large risk off moves, so if the DB situation resolves I would not be surprised […]

September 28 Biotech Update

The sector continues to do well but there seems to be a bifurcation occurring where the SMID are outperforming the large caps. Usually when investors come back into a sector they start higher on the capital scale as those are typically cash flow positive, reasonable valuations, and a safer way to increase exposure. This does […]