VVUS, OREX, ARNA – Understanding the Advisory Committee

Playing VVUS, OREX, ARNA through FDA Adcomm and Qnexa PDUFA Over the past several months, these three companies, with their respective late-stage anti-obesity drug candidates, have experienced a considerable increase in volatility and share price, due in part to new regulatory revelations regarding clinical pathways to regulatory approval. We believe there will continued volatility leading […]

ARIA – Quick take on Ariad’s upcoming FDA panel

Glancing at the catalyst calendar, we see that ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARIA) Ridaforolimus is scheduled to go before a FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee on March 20th(Monday)[link] to review their NDA. (The proposed tradename for Ridaforolimus is Taltorvic.) The briefing documents should be available for this meeting tomorrow morning. ARIAD has gone to great lengths […]

POZN – Focusing on PA32540

POZN: Focusing on PA32540 In Pozen’s last earnings call on February 28, CEO John R. Plachetka told analysts top-line results originally projected for the first half of this year, are now expected in mid-March. Refresher: PA32540 is Pozen’s aspirin/omeprazole co-formulation for the prevention of NSAID-associated upper gastrointestinal (UGI) toxicity. It contains 325 mg aspirin and […]

TZYM – Pivotal Results Approaching

TZYM: Pivotal Results Approaching Durham, North Carolina’s Tranzyme Pharma is a small biotechnology company focused on the development of novel treatments for Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. Its main product is Ulimorelin for post-operative ileus (POI), a Ghrelin agonist designed to aid the recovery of GI function after bowel surgery. It is set to report results from […]

Updates from the Citi Global Healthcare Conference

The annual Citi Global Healthcare Conference was held February 27-29, 2012, and as always we listened in on the webcasts to identify key takeaways for Chimera Research Group shareholders. These write-ups may be brief due to overlap with comments at other recent investor conferences – see links below.   Amarin $AMRN (Leerink Swann notes – company overview) “We […]

ANTH – A look at Anthera’s VISTA-16 and PEARL-SC studies

The recent corporate update[link] from Anthera Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: ANTH) warrants further input on our part. Antera revealed more detail about 2 important upcoming catalysts with respect to their lead programs, Varespladib methyl (A-002) for acute coronary syndrome  and Blisibimod (A-623) for systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). Notably, Varespladib’s VISTA-16 ACS study has a Data and Safety Monitoring […]