Surprise. The sector is weak. I am a little surprised that we are not see a faster sell off as clearly there is no momentum and we have broken support. This really seems like a nice and orderly sell off and this is not necessarily good. The selling does not end when there is no […]
September 9th Biotech Update
We have some interesting news to start the week and of course it leads to a flat sector with the broader market green. It seems like the sector is underperforming and again I think that is odd given how well the earnings came through last quarter. Perhaps we are close enough to the election that […]
September 5th Biotech Update
I have class about to begin but I want to put out a quick note on the news. GBT announced that the FDA has accepted the NDA for voxelotor with a PDUFA date of February 26th, 2020. The stock is moving on the news. I do not see the filing as the real news as […]
ARQL- Quick Take
I have been following Arqule off and on for quite some time. The company has been reborn after so many lost years pursuing its failed MET inhibitor ARQ 197. Hopes are high for lead asset ARQ 531, a competitive inhibitor of BTK. Arqule also has a pipeline of 2 AKT inhibitors and an out-licensed FGFR […]
September 4th Biotech Update
The sector is in an odd spot. It seems to be right under a major support but has not quite broken down. I suspect we cannot remain at these levels for much longer, although we twice went down to the $78 level on the XBI. Given that the $78 twice was tested and held that […]
September 3 Biotech Update
We remain in the summer doldrums but more than that we are stuck in the macro issues. Between a potential recession to the China trade war, it is virtually impossible to get through a week without something whipping the sector and market. Today we might actually be getting to a point where China starts to […]
August 29th Biotech Update
I will keep this short and sweet as there is little news to talk about. On the positive side, the sector seems to be doing better and while I would not call it a false breakdown yet, the possibility remains. Clearly we need a continuation rally but we got exactly what we needed yesterday. Today […]
August 28 Biotech Update
I think today is the day. The sector is at a very precarious positon. It has dropped below what was support but I still think it has a chance to make that into a false breakdown. A rally above that previous support level and one that strengthens as the day continues is crucial. The worst […]
Zogenix Acquires Modis Therapeutics
Aug 27, 2019 by Jason Chew Zogenix announced yesterday that it is acquiring privately held Modis Therapeutics. It gains access to the late stage substrate enhancement therapy, MT1621, for the treatment of Thymidine Kinase 2 deficiency (TK2d). Zogenix is paying $250M upfront, consisting of $175M cash and $75M stock. Modis may also receive milestones of […]
August 26 Biotech Update
Market starts the week higher but I do not trust it as there is the old saying that markets never bottom on Fridays. To be fair futures were down a lot and have rallied before the market opened but I remain suspicious of the green open. The ideal scenario for a robust turnaround would be […]
Coverage Continuation- ARVN
Aug 23, by Jason Chew Arvinas is one of the newer names I’ve been covering. The company is developing a new class of drugs with a new modality known as Targeted Protein Degraders, coining the technology PROTAC (Proteolysis Targeting Chimera). PROTACs work in a completely different way from current small molecule drugs. Most of today’s […]
August 23 Biotech Update
So the sector feels a lot worse than the chart indicates. We are right around support at $80 and that seems to have been holding. We are approaching, however, a decision point. We can break below what is support for a leg down or break out of the downward trending making that look like a […]
August 21 Biotech Update
Broadly speaking the sector and market are doing well. Sentiment has been pretty negative and there were some macro concerns. This seems to be easing a bit, so a rally might be in the offing but how many times have we been burning at the start of rallies with some new macro concern jumping to […]
August 20th Biotech Update
So I do not want to spend a lot of time on macro or the sector as it is the same but we do have some really important news to discuss that is both stock and sector important. 1. SRPT received a CRL. This was a surprise both to me and the company. According to […]
Coverage Continuation- ZGNX
Aug 19, 2019 by Jason Chew Zogenix ran into some unwelcome surprise this April when FDA kicked back its ZX008 (Fintepla) NDA with a Refuse to File letter. The two deficiencies cited were the lack of a non-clinical toxicology report and submission of an incorrect clinical dataset. The request for additional toxicology studies was unexpected; management believed […]
August 19th Biotech News
The market seems to be in a good mood to start the week and I would argue it remains macro driven. I think the hope is that central banks and governments are about to undertake a series of actions meant to stimulate the global economy. Of course, these sort of expectations can be like sugar […]
August 16th Biotech Update
So far the week is ending on a positive note but it is early but not surprising that we see some sort of bounce in the market. I sort of wonder how the trading ends the day as it will send a stronger signal than how trading starts. We have seen a lot of macro […]
August 15 Biotech Update
While the macro has been major the past couple of days, the sector specific news has been pretty sparse. I was hoping something interesting would happen to write about but there really is nothing major. It does make it a little easier to trade in that we will be sucked up in the macro maelstrom […]
Coverage Continuation – ZYME
Aug 14, 2019 by Jason Chew Zymeworks is perhaps one of my favorite stocks. The small/mid cap Canadian biotech has expertise in bispecific antibody technology. Bispecifics are an exploding field, now with over 50 antibodies in the clinic. Their flexibility allows for a multitude of applications. Some analysts believe bispecifics will drive growth in the […]
August 13 Biotech News
We are back into the old pattern. Good biotech news that moves the individual stock but has limited read through. We have had a couple of these days where the sector grew stronger as the day went on but that usually required a lessening of the macro concerns. That could be the case today as […]
