Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) looks to be dwindling as a takeover candidate. There have been rumors surrounding the name for months and months, yet the shelf filing for it to raise capital dampened that hope for at least many investors. Today after the close came word that the [...]
StemCells Inc (NASD: STEM) has announced this morning that it and collaborator UCSF have initiated the enrollment of patients in the first ever clinical study of neural stem cells as a potential treatment in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD), a neurological disorder that primarily afflicts children.
The company noted that the nature of [...]
Cephalon Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPH) is down sharply on news that it and privately-held Ception Therapeutics, Inc. did not meet some endpoints. Shares fell 8% to $54.76. Average volume is 1.9 million shares and the 52-week trading range is $52.55 to $81.35. This is the brief summary: The companies gave Phase [...]
This weekend we ran screens of several drug and biotech companies in our quest for ‘cheap stocks’ in the BioHealth sector. The intent is not solely for buyout targets because we prefer to look at value stocks rather than just picking buyout hopefuls. The obvious issue that makes most of [...]
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) is not exactly new to the world of activist investors as there have been problems inside the company for years. An SEC filing this morning was filed by a fund called HealthCor Management, L.P. located in New York. It turns out that the fund is [...]
Some secondary offerings are good for the existing holders and some are not. Adding cash to the coffers is good when a company can take advantage of a high share price when they need to raise long-term growth capital. But there is also the type of secondary offering that is [...]
VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) may soon have a new erectile dysfunction drug on the market if the test results lead to an FDA approval. Shares are trading higher this morning after it announced positive results in a phase 3 pivotal study evaluating the safety and efficacy of avanafil for the [...]
Geron Corp. (NASDAQ: GERN) on Monday filed a registration statement for the resale of shares by existing holders. This is not a huge deal on the surface as it is ‘only’ 344,120 shares of common stock with a listed value of roughly $2 million. The following share counts are being [...]
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) is still a holder of some drug companies and medical devices companies. Here are the Berkshire Hathaway biohealth positions as of September 30, 2009:
Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE: BDX) 1.2 million shares, same as last quarter. GlaxoSmithkline (NYSE: GSK) 1.51 million shares, same as [...]Carl Icahn, via his Icahn Capital LP and other entities owned the following drug and biotech or biohealth names. There may be some overlaps because of more than 1 filing, but here goes:
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) 12,971,328 shares;
Biogen Idec Corp. (NASDAQ: BIIB) 3,215,051 shares, second filing showed 12,860,205 [...]
Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PARD) may be done, at least that is how the stock is acting this morning. The company announced that its pivotal Phase 3 SPEAR trial of picoplatin in the second-line treatment of small cell lung cancer failed to meet its primary endpoint of overall survival. The [...]
GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (NYSE:GSK) and Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:NABI)) today announced an exclusive worldwide option and licensing agreement for a nicotine conjugate candidate vaccine (NicVAX(), an investigational vaccine for the treatment of nicotine addiction and the prevention of smoking relapse, as well as for the development of a second generation nicotine vaccine.
 Under [...]
Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq: GENZ) issued a press release defending itself after such a large stock drop today due to the FDA notice on foreign particles being present in some drugs.
The company announced that it has issued letters to U.S. healthcare providers regarding its enzyme replacement products Cerezyme® (imiglucerase for injection), [...]
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LXRX) is getting some very positive reaction after the closing bell today as investors love buying up low-priced and small cap biotechs in the current climate. The reason is that the company showed interim data on its LX1031. This is Lexicon’s investigational new drug that is [...]
Oncothyreon (NASDAQ:ONTY) reported a loss from operations of $2.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2009, compared with a loss from operations of $3.6 million for the comparable period in 2008.
Oncothyreon reported a net loss of $5.9 million, or $0.24 per basic and diluted share, for the three [...]
MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ: MNKD) does not look like much is going on if you just look at the stock today. But there is a key trade around the January PDUFA review date for its Afresa. We were just given a key heads-up by OptionsHawk.com this morning:
Joe at OptionsHawk.com [...]
We have now been able to see the short interest changes that took place over the month of October-2009 in the world of biotech stocks. There were some key gains seen in a couple names, but the overall trend in biotech short selling seems to be down.  We have given [...]
Metabolix (NASDAQ:MBLX) shares are under pressure.
The company announced that it has commenced a public offering of shares of its common stock pursuant to the Company’s effective shelf registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Jefferies & Company and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC will serve as [...]
Sanofi-Aventis and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) said they expanded an existing development partnership to run through 2017. The previous arrangement ended in 2012.
Under the expanded deal, the companies plan on advancing up to five antibodies into clinical development each year, with Sanofi-Aventis funding up to $160 million annually for Regeneron research until [...]
Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CADX) is about to have a monster event that will be one of those where the stock becomes a home run or a flop. The company has a November 13 PDUFA date for Acetavance, an intravenous version of acetaminophen, as a treatment for acute pain. The [...]
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHMD) has been in the news quite a bit of late, which is odd for a company its size. Recently it announced its second broad U.S. patent for anti-viral applications of phospholipid-targeting antibodies, and it also recently announced that had regained its listing requirements for NASDAQ-listing. [...]
Protalix Biotherapeutics (AMEX:PLX) has had a good run.
A little over a month ago, the ompany said preclinical data on pr-antiTNF, a biosimilar version of etanercept (Enbrel). Produced using the company’s proprietary ProCellEx technology, pr-antiTNF is a plant cell expressed recombinant fusion protein made from the soluble form of the human TNF [...]
Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENZN) has entered into an agreement to sell its specialty pharmaceutical business to the Italian-owned company Sigma-Tau Group. The sale price is quoted as too many different numbers by too many different wire sources, and we wanted to clarify this. More importantly, this makes for a [...]
CEL-SCI Corporation (AMEX:CVM) will present at the 7th Annual Vaccines: All Things Considered Conference. The presenter is Dr.Daniel Zimmerman, Ph.D., Senior Vice President Research and Development
Novartis (NYSE:NVS), Sanofi Pasteur, and Merck (NYSE:MRK) are also expected to attend.
CEL-SCI is up 11% to $1.36 on heavy volume
Douglas A. McIntyre
[...]ZIOPHARM Oncology (NYSE:ZIOP)Â
presented today at the 15th Annual Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) Meeting, positive interim data from the multicenter randomized Phase II trial of palifosfamide (ZymafosTM, ZIO-201) treating patients with unresectable or metastatic soft tissue sarcoma. As previously announced, having achieved the study-specified efficacy milestone following planned safety and [...]
The FDA recently issued its latest ”Development of Safe and Effective Tumor Vaccines and Gene Therapy Products” document.
Among the highlights:
*”Despite enormous efforts towards finding a cure and progress in some subsets, overall survival of cancer patients has not increased and new therapeutic approaches are warranted.”
*”Numerous investigational cancer gene therapies, tumor [...]
Bioanalytical Systems (NASDAQ:BASI) is up 63% on light volume and no news.
Watch for a sudden sell-off if profit takers look to make a killing
Douglas A. McIntyre
[...]Molecular Insight (NASDAQ:MIPI) is off about 10% today on no news.
The most recent announcement from the company was almost a week ago when it said it executed an exclusive 10-year agreement to supply the Onalta 90-Y edotreotide radiotherapeutic to BioMedica Life Sciences S.A., Athens, Greece.
In September, Molecular Insight entered into a [...]
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) wants to get larger in teh realm of vaccines. In China for that matter. The Swiss drug giant has announced plans to buy an 85% majority stake in a privately held Chinese vaccine maker called Zhejiang Tianyuan. The purchase price is roughly $125 million.
This is a [...]
It seems that Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) is investing further into Alzheimer’s Disease. A company called Probiodrug AG, a biotech with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease, announced on Monday that it had successfully closed a Series B financing round. The total round came to above 36 million Euros [...]
There is an interesting release out today showing that research from the University of Rochester Medical Center shows an inverse relationship between some of the more common pain killers or relievers and the effectiveness of flu shots. While this does not impact the need for flu vaccines and while this [...]
Questor (NASDAQ:QCOR) announced very disappointing earnings for the last quarter ending September 30.
Net sales totaled $13.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2009 compared to $24.2 million in the year earlier period. Net income for the third quarter of 2009 was $1.2 million, or $0.02 per diluted common [...]
Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) has spent 2009 as its year where the company acted as the rising Phoenix from the ashes. Things had reached bad enough levels that the stock traded under the $1.00 mark. But a surprising twist in its experimental lupus drug called Benlysta has created [...]
More than 80 percent of hepatitis C patients in each arm of the Phase 2 Study C208 achieved a sustained viral response (SVR) with a telaprevir-based regimen according to results of an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis announced today by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX ). The data from Study C208 will [...]
The market did not seem to care much that Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMLN) that had entered into a worldwide exclusive license, development and commercialization agreement to co-develop and commercialize pharmaceutical products for the treatment of obesity and related indications with Takeda Pharmaceutical.
The agreement includes products to be developed from Amylin’s pipeline, [...]
