Not a lot of additional news today. The sector continues to modestly outperform the broad market, which is good. The XBI crossed over the 200 day moving average (and actually closed above it) and the longer it can remain there the better. It would be great to see that moving average tested and hold as […]
June 29 Biotech Update
Brexit fears are turning into Brexit relief as I talked about Monday but there is still awhile to go before the damage to the market and sector are fixed and we probably need to go over the pre-Brexit levels before getting more comfortable. In any case, there is some interesting biotech news to talk about. […]
June 27 Biotech Update
Brexit, Brexit, and more Brexit. Commentary from this weekend ranged from the end of humanity as we know it to everything will be fine. Clearly someone is going to nail the impact (given that every type of impact has been talked about). The fact is we do not know and cannot even start to gauge […]
June 23 Biotech Update
Nothing new (again) and the market is waiting on baited breath about the Brexit voting results. This should be the last major near term fear inducing event. The polls are too close to call but the betting markets seem pretty confident that the vote will be to remain. I expect today will be volatile but […]
June 17 Biotech Update
I am starting to sound like a broken record but we are having more of the same in that I did not miss much yesterday and it continues today. It seems to me that we are stuck in a macro rut (Brexit concerns and FX movements) with no real sector catalysts to drive action so […]
April 28 Biotech Update
We have a little bit of news this morning. There is no way I can cover it all especially having a bunch of conference calls to listen to as well. I will focus on the big picture and dig down into a couple of the events. 1. We have been waiting for M&A and it […]
October 12 Biotech Update
Another start to the week and another week without the M&A that many think is needed to move the sector higher. I worry a little about that argument as one would like to see the sector move higher off of fundamentals and not adding more and more takeover premiums into stocks. That being said I […]
July 28 Biotech Update
The sector looked like it would be off to a good start but it faded quickly. I would still argue that any movement before the GILD earnings can be quickly changed, so the trading action tomorrow is much more important than anything today. Not a ton of major news but a decent amount of tidbits, […]
October 29 Biotech Update
A little bit of consolidation in the sector, which seems perfectly healthy especially with the GILD “miss.” The broader markets are presenting a positive/neutral backdrop and I think that eventually leads to the sector playing catch up and then taking the lead. I still think we need to keep an eye on small caps as […]
August 21 Biotech Update
Another slow day on the news front, so this should be another short report. I usually like to begin the reports with a sense of the market but right now it feels like a market looking for direction. There does not seem to be consistent leadership between days and the high growth sectors like biotech […]
August 11 Biotech Update
A relatively mixed early day in the market. The open was modestly positive and biotechs seemed to participate but not dramatically. Again it seemed like it was the small caps that had more of a bid but it was not anything spectacular. The morning seemed dominated by news more than anything else. 1. TKMR is […]
July 30 Biotech Update
The sector and market rallied nicely on the GDP but I am still not convinced that we have an all clear. It was especially disconcerting how quickly the market gave back a lot of the post GDP print gains. Of course, there are still values out there and no reason to sell and run for […]
Update on Protalix
On Wednesday, Protalix (PLX) will present data from their phase I clinical trial of oral glucocerebrosidase (GCD), or Oral GCD (PRX-112), in patients with Gaucher disease. The presentation will be at 1:15pm PST at the Lysosomal Storage Disease Network WORLD Symposium (LDN WORLD). While Sanofi/Genzyme are nearing potential approval of Cerdelga (eliglustat), the data should […]
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 […]
November 18-EOD
Thankfully there was not a lot of news but biotechs did not just drift lower. I still worry about tax loss selling hitting the sector (or at least the small to mid caps) heading into the end of the year but it is nice to see that the sector can tread water on no news […]
ASH 2013 Preview on Myelofibrosis
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 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 […]
June 28- EOD
Not much of a lot of new today but there were some interesting tidbits. 1. BIIB spiked higher today on the back of SNY news. The EMA granted Aubagio exclusivity and traders immediately wanted to tie this into the debate over BG12 exclusivity in the EU. I am not sure that this is anything more […]
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 […]
ISIS and AEGR – Where do they stand after the FDA Advisory Committee meetings?
October 17 and 18, 2012 saw back-to-back meetings of the FDA Endocrine and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee (EMDAC) to review pending new drug applications (NDAs) for two drugs for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH): lomitapide from Aegerion Pharma (NASDAQ: AEGR) and mipomersen/Kynamro from Sanofi/Genzyme and Isis Pharma (NASDAQ: ISIS). As Chimera predicted, both drugs received positive […]
