The market looks like it is teetering on the edge and perhaps it is the ISIS march across northern Iraq that will be the impetus to send it into the correction. What is interesting is that the biotech sector has held up well in this market weakness (although the weakness has been relatively minor at […]
June 10 Biotech Update
Yesterday was a busy day and ended up being a little crazier than I planned but I am not back in the office and ready to think about some biotech. I did not have a chance to check the market yesterday so I am not sure how it traded but it seems like it is […]
Quick comments on Achillion and TG Therapeutics
(with Jason Chew) In biotech, all too often are investors given news on Friday that is not so good. With many updates expected by the end of the quarter, someone was bound to have the honors of being one of those companies. Today we had quite bad news out of Achillion and an update from […]
What to look for at AASLD 2013
We wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the presentations at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. This conference takes place Friday, November 1st thru Tuesday, November 5th and covers . Research interest in new therapies against the hepatitis C virus(HCV) still remain high, although […]
Week’s Option Activity (7/29~8/2)
The following stocks had notable activity in their options during the past week: $IBB (7/30): 2,500 SEP 190.0/(180.0) strike Put spreads (ETF at $197) were bought for 2.30 or total debit of $575,000. The SEP 190.0 strike Puts were bought for 4.00 and the SEP 180.0 strike Puts were sold for 1.70 against. Buyer makes […]
ACHN – Sell Achillion, Buy Idenix
A lot has happened since we last discussed HCV stocks back in October ahead of AASLD. One thing that remains unchanged is Gilead’s dominant lead in the development of next-generation HCV drugs. Beating expectations, Gilead is set to submit its regulatory filing of an all-oral combo consisting of sofosbuvir and GS-5885 by mid-2014 with potential […]
Wednesday at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
With the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference wrapped up, I wanted to highlight some notes from the Wednesday session. I tried to keep them as concise as possible. We will say that we did see a lot of material that will keep up us busy for the year. You can find the webcasts to any of […]
ALNY IDIX ISIS LXRX – Dispatches from the Morgan Stanley and UBS conferences
The annual Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare conference and the UBS Global Life Sciences conference were held September 10-12 and 19-20, 2012, respectively. The MS presentations were moderated by the analyst host, while the UBS presentations were webcast without a Q&A session. We will highlight timeline projections and other notes for a few biotech companies. Isis […]
Bristol’s HepC Drug Fails – Now Idenix Compound Is On Clinical Hold
Bristol’s nuc, INX189, crashed not long after the compound was acquired through a $2.5 billion buyout of Inhibitex as a result of heart failure in one patient. Now the FDA has called for a partial clinical hold on a similar compound made by Idenix out of caution. IDIX stock has dropped about 30% today. Toxicity […]
IDIX – Quick Take on IDX184
Idenix released SVR4 data for its lead drug IDX184 and early 3-day results of the promising NS5A inhibitor IDX719 Tuesday afternoon. Both sets of data looked good, sending IDIX shares soaring in after-hours trading. 31 patients from the first cohort of Idenix’s Phase IIb study were randomized to either 50mg (n=16) or 100mg (n=15) IDX184 […]
IDIX – The Patent Interference Case
In early March, Idenix announced the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) had declared a patent interference between its U.S. Patent Application no. 12/131,868 and Pharmasset’s (now Gilead’s) U.S. Patent no. 7,429,572. Idenix, with the earlier filing date, has been designated the senior party in this dispute, where the principal issue is to determine priority […]
IDIX – To Market By 2015?
Idenix presented at the 37th Deutsche Bank Annual Health Care Conference May 7th. Yeah, not the most exciting event, but still worth mentioning. CEO Ron Renault gave a run-down of the company’s highlights, mostly rehashed from previous presentations, but there were some interesting tidbits. It will be key to be on the market by the […]
IDIX – Interview With CEO Ron Renaud
Idenix CEO Ron Renaud Q&A April 11, 2012 Idenix has been the subject of considerable attention with EASL (The European Association for the Study of the Liver) approaching and embargoed abstracts flying around the web. The company’s shares have been battered, dropping nearly 50% from January highs as questions have arisen over the potency of […]
IDIX – Quick chat w/ IDIX CEO Ron Renaud
I had a brief conversation w/ Idenix CEO Ron Renaud this afternoon. Not surprisingly, he was caught up in the deluge of EASL abstracts that were released today. Of particular concern for Idenix was one from Roche involving a trial of their nuc mericitabine and protease inhibitor danoprevir in combination with ribavirin. The trial was […]
IDIX – Is IDX-184 Good Enough?
Idenix may have a new lease on life now that the FDA has lifted all holds on its lead nucleotide IDX184. The company is very keen to put its nuc in combination with a pan-genotypic compound, either a protease inhibitor or NS5a inhibitor. To ensure it doesn’t run into the same toxicity problems it had […]
Quick take on some upcoming FDA decisions and clinical data
A few comments to highlight some upcoming data or PDUFA events. Threshold Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: THLD) has been quite the stock the past few months after landing a partnership with Merck KGaA and reporting positive top-line PFS data from their Phase 2 study in pancreatic cancer. On Monday, April 2nd @ 10:30AM PST, Threshold will be […]
Quick take on some upcoming catalysts
With Gilead’s (NASDAQ: GILD) recent announcement about the 7977 data(100% RVR, 25/25 in genotype 1 patients so far) should have Idenix(NASDAQ: IDIX) and Achillion(NASDAQ: ACHN) investors thinking hard about the relative risk-reward at this point. GILD announced that data would be available at CROI12 on March 5th-8th; they plan to annouce more SVR data on […]
BMY & INHX – Bristol-Myers Squibb Buys Inhibitex for $2.5 Billion
Bristol-Myers Squibb Buys Inhibitex for $2.5 Billion On Saturday, Bristol announced it would acquire Inhibitex for $26 a share, about $2.5 billion dollars, a 163% premium to the companies $9.87 Friday closing price. Inhibitex had been the hot topic of takeover speculation lately for its HCV drug INX-189, a coveted nucleotide polymerase inhibitor. The hepatitis […]
VRUS – Pharmasset Halts Trial- And The Winner Is…
Pharmasset, a leader in the development of next generation HCV treatments, took a stumble today as it announced the halt of all trials involving its drug PSI-938 due to possible liver toxicities. This compound is the second of Pharmasset’s two nucleotide analog polymerase inhibitors (nuc) and further behind in the clinic. The more advanced compound, […]
Clinical database updates
We got a chance over the past weekend to update the clinical database. After doing so, we felt the need to quickly highlight some potential catalysts. These events are likely to take place in the next 6 months and several companies have multiple upcoming value creating events. (To continue reading, sign up here or subscribers should […]
