This is the last note before the fourth and I wanted to spend time going into a new therapeutic space and highlight a new company (well, it is new to me but has already had a good run this year). I also wanted to wrap up the discussion from yesterday as the trading action is […]
April 22 Biotech Update
Another busy day so I have to keep this very short as I am trying to squeeze this in between meetings. In general, the sector seems to be doing fine and modestly outperforming the market. It remains to be seen if this is a sustainable move or whether it is a bounce from new M&A […]
Chimera Research Group Catalyst Summary for March 2015
At the end of each month Chimera Research Group provides you with a monthly summary of TEN notable catalysts/events that have occurred during the past month. MARCH 2015: 1) Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) announced that the FDA approved the expanded use of Opdivo to treat patients with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Approval came just over two […]
March 3 Biotech Update
The market is weaker today and it is bringing down the sector, although it appears that biotechs are underperforming the broader market. It does not appear that this underperformance is concentrated in any market cap group or therapeutic area and simply looks like broadly hitting the sell button. Not exactly sure why the selling was […]
February 4 Biotech Update
So it looks like the sector wants to go lower. While there can be any number of explanations the proximate cause is the GILD report, so I want to go over that in detail and trace out what it means and does not mean. 1. Why is GILD down? I think this is the simplest […]
January 7 Biotech Update
A much better market today than the past couple of days. Over the near term I suspect the market is set up for a fairly significant bounce. Of course, the normal caveats all apply and we need to see follow through this afternoon but my base case is a nice recovery for the market which […]
December 30 Biotech Update
A drifting day in the market but with a negative bias to start. It is hard to read too much into the movement as the volume is low and there is little news out there. I am going to spend the next couple of notes previewing 2015 to a certain extent. I will start with […]
December 4 Biotech Update
A blah start to the trading day. There are not a particularly large numbers of movers and the market seems for the most part to be drifting. As such, it is difficult to discern any real trend outside of chop. So it seems like the market and sector are searching for a direction. I would […]
October 17 Biotech Update
Looks like we are clearly having the bounce that everyone has been expecting (expect during the height of the selling where everyone expected the market to go to zero). This should have fairly significant legs even if it is a dead cat bounce. At this point the conservative stance is to stay agnostic about the […]
October 2 Biotech Update
Surprise, surprise but the markets a not great (again). While we are not seeing the selling (yet), there is still not a lot of buying going on. We did get that additional move down I was expecting but I still have the sense that the path of least resistance is lower but we are probably […]
[Free Report] Tekmira Authorized to Treat Ebola; Amgen Seeks Approval for BiTE
Shares of Tekmira are up over 15% midday on news the FDA has authorized the company to provide the drug TKM-Ebola for treatment of subjects with confirmed or suspected Ebola virus infections under expanded access protocols. Tekmira has long been the subject of speculation over approval of its drug for the treatment of Ebola. The […]
August 4- Biotech Update
It was an interesting start to the week with Ebola and ASPIRE. It was strange that the sector was strong to start but seemed to hit a quick air pocket. Given how far the market has sold off, I would be very surprised not to see a bounce back this week but the market needs […]
April 30 Biotech Update
It is not Tuesday so the selling continues. It seems like the turnaround Tuesdays happen but have no sticking power. At some point that trend will change and that should be an important tell. Whether that happens today or in a couple of months is not clear at this time but as long as the […]
April 23 Biotech Update- Shooting Out of the Earnings Gate
This was a relatively slow news day (compared to yesterday and Monday) but there is still a lot to talk about with the large cap earnings. The sector did not responsd great but it is still early and I want to see how it closes before judging this reaction. In addition, the market backdrop was […]
March 31 Biotech Update- Is this the Bounce We are Looking For?
So this seems to be the rally we were looking for but that is assuming it does not fade in the afternoon like every other recent rally attempt. So far the rally is a little more broad based and stronger but we have seen this story before. That being said even if this is the […]
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 […]
Upcoming Phase 3 trials
With a fresh start to 2014 and the biotech market still very strong, we wanted to examine some upcoming Phase 3 results that will be in focus in the first quarter. Expectations for some of these trials varies widely. We have a blend of small biotech to big pharma. Company: Merck (MRK) and Amgen (AMGN) […]
November 19- EOD
The sector was doing fine yesterday until Icahn dumped on the market and everything got caught in the crossfire. This morning they are doing fine again, so it seems that as long as there is not a larger market selloff biotechs might just get time to catch their footing. Of course, it is still an […]
ASH 2013 Preview on Lymphoid Malignancies
This year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology(ASH13) is highly anticipated for a number of reasons. Pharmacyclic’s Ibrutinib could be viewed as one of the several catalysts sparking the biotech sector’s run the past 2 years. They are now within months of receiving approval for 2 indications where they could benefit patient lives […]
ASH 2013 Preview on Multiple Myeloma
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 […]
