It was a fairly busy day today in biotech land the sentiment certainly appears more positive. They participated in the market rally even though most were not big losers in the recent macro selling. This is certainly positive going forward. I want to focus on the MRK news as it touches on a lot of […]
September 27- EOD
Not a particularly news rich day but the sector seemed to continue its momentum from yesterday and seemed to outperform the general market with a lot of green on a red day. 1. Well, it looks like JNJ is tossing another wrench in ECYT trials with more doxil supply problems. ECYT noted that they have […]
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 […]
Upcoming Fall medical conferences
With Fall approaching quickly, we head into one of the busier periods of medical conference presentations. In the next month, we have several widely followed conferences approaching and abstract releases for a number of others. Below are some of the key conferences that we will be tracking with some analysis to follow in subsequent articles. […]
Biggest takeaway from ASCO 2013
With wrapping up our coverage of the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, I feel compelled to elucidate a point that we tried to hammer home with our preview of this meeting. I attended at least a dozen presentations covering various indications, but nothing compared to the sessions on the developments […]
June 4- EOD
Quite day, more or less. Some interesting ASCO news with some larger pin action. Other than that I did not see anything of particular interest. Bios were generally weak and perhaps this is the start of the long awaited biotech correction but we have had many false starts before. What is different this time is […]
June 3- EOD
Happy mid-ASCO (although most of the data is already presented). Some interesting ASCO and, surprisingly, non-ASCO stories. 1. I added to my SGEN position today (at $33.67). It has been under pressure recently and I’ve been looking to add over the summer in anticipation of HL data at ASH. I am intimately aware of the […]
Flash takes from ASCO 2013 Day 1/2
With Day 1 and 2 of ASCO 2013 completed, we wanted to review some of our main conclusions from the presentations and posters we reviewed. We will try our best given the vast amount of dense information covered during this time. As we previously said, this was largely a conference dominated by newsflow from big […]
ASCO2013 Take Three: PD1 antibodies will have significant presence
This is our third piece in a series of articles on developments expected at ASCO 2013[1,2]. Currently, we think the majority of the exciting presentations at ASCO 2013 will be from clinical candidates at big pharma. In particular, anti-programmed death-1 monoclonal antibodies(anti-PD-1) like Bristol Myers’ Nivolumab(BMS-936558), Merck’s Lambrolizumab (MK-3475), GSK’s AMP-224, Teva/CureTech’s CT-011 and Roche/Genentech’s […]
AASLD 2012 – An HCV Primer
It seems EASL has just ended, but AASLD is fast approaching, coming mid November. For HepC watchers, here is an overview of some companies that will be presenting at the Liver Meeting. Despite the tremendous progress made to-date, new advances keep it exciting. Gilead: Acknowledged leader in the race to bring an all-oral drug combination […]
ECYT – Holds Promise
Endocyte was looking good during ASCO 2011 when it released results from its Phase II PRECEDENT study of women with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC). Data presented showed the company’s lead compound, EC145, in combination with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) improved median progression free survival (PFS) over PLD alone. A pivotal Phase III trial was initiated […]
LGND – Updates from the JMP Securities
The JMP Securities Healthcare Conference was held July 12-13, a rare biotech investor event during the summer doldrums [webcast link and check back at BiotechDueDiligence where I will archive select slides]. We will follow up with reports on Synta Pharma SNTA, Biosante Pharma BPAX, Spectrum Pharma SPPI, Alnylam ALNY and Isis Pharma ISIS, but for now […]
EASL – A Look Back- Lessons Learned
There were some early winners and losers this year at EASL. Here we examine a few new interferon-free combination treatments, the most exciting development in HCV today; and look outward to determine how the future may shape up. The Good News: The star of the stage, once again, was GS-7977 (formerly PSI-7977). Gilead’s nucleotide polymerase […]
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 […]
Platform and Specialty Pharmaceutical Companies can bolster Big Pharma
The pharmaceutical industry is in a weak state, with an impending “patent cliff” that is forcing Big Pharma to reorganize and refocus. In 2011, roughly $20 billion in branded US sales dollars are “at risk” to patent expiry and generic competition. The pinnacle will be reached in 2013 and will subside after 2015. Fiscal Year […]
Merck beefing up diabetes pipeline
Merck acquires non-exclusive license for Acuform technology from Depomed Merck plans to use technology to expand it’s diabetes portfolio Signifies the extended release diabetes market is growing more competitive Pharmaceutical pipeline weaknesses will spur more deals. Today, Merck (NYSE:MRK) signaled that it will be expanding it’s diabetes pipeline. Merck announced that it has licensed certain […]
