News remains slow but the macro remains in the background. There is a chance that China trade tensions ease (only before rising again) and Iran is fading into the memory (but this is not over yet). Unfortunately, the market is rallying a little but the sector seems stuck in the mud. It is a little […]
September 17 Biotech Update
So I was thinking that any response to the attacks on Saudi Arabia would happen sooner rather than later but I am no longer convinced that remains the case. Clearly Saudi Arabia was taken by surprise and so it needs to tighten its defenses before escalating the situation (if they choose to escalate). A kinetic […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
August 9th Biotech Update
It has been 24 hours of surprises culminating in my daughters school bus not showing up this morning but that is the least of the surprises. Interestingly, the broader sector is actually holding up despite the series of negative surprises but let us dive into the news. 1. AMRN is perhaps the biggest surprise. It […]
August 8 Biotech Update
What macro brings down macro can bring up. The sector seems to be trading right in line with the broader markets but hopefully we see some acceleration of the sector given the positive news that needs to be digested. 1. SRPT is lower on the earnings release. The revenues were fine and in line. SRPT […]
July 19th Biotech Update
I am back and need to catch up on the overall market and some sector news. I do want to focus today on a stock we all know and will have more broader sector commentary next week. I do think the sector is set up for a major move as it looks to have been […]
DMD Data by Giant Pharma Pfizer Kept Sarepta In the Driver Seat with Superior Drug
Pfizer (PFE) presented its first set of data (n=6) from the mini-dystrophin gene therapy for DMD (PF-06939926) at the PPMD conference on June 28th. Much speculations surrounded Pfizer’s decision to report the dystrophin quantification using mass-spec. Sarepta (SRPT) has used WB-western blot since 2015 during the Eteplirsen FDA approval process. Sarepta has also used it in […]
June 28th Biotech Update
A good finish to the week so far in the sector. I will try and keep this quick and to the point as it is a little delayed because of waiting on the PFE data. The wait appears to have been worth it. 1. The PFE data looking inferior on both efficacy and safety. The […]
June 18th Biotech Update
We got a very nice follow through during the day yesterday for the sector. That is exactly what you wanted to see and ideally it continues for the next couple days. We certainly do not need it to be as strong as it was yesterday but we need to break the strong day followed immediately […]
May 14 Biotech Update
I am not sure who had a more difficult day yesterday. You all for having to watch another market meltdown over China fears (and others) or me who had to help chaperone a middle school trip to New Orleans. In any case, we have all survived and the market seems to be bouncing this morning. […]
May 9 Biotech Update
Macro seems to once again dominate the trading with both Iran and China increasing the risk and both North Korea and Venezuela just below the surface. The odds remain that we muddle through these crises but one cannot ignore the risks that these present especially because the Iran and China situations could potentially be very […]
May 1 Biotech Update
The sector continues to lag. What I see as a little odd is that pharma appears to be outperforming biotech. If Medicare for All was going to collapse the US drug market, why would pharma be immune and be doing well? It is an odd disconnect and speaks to something else going on in the […]
March 26 Biotech Update
The sector has had a nice sharp pullback that has challenged sentiment a little. I was a little surprised about how quickly sentiment got negative yesterday as we have had a pretty solid move higher. It seems that sentiment is a little more fragile under the surface than I thought. In some ways that is […]
March 21 Biotech Update
This will certainly be a bad day for the large cap but I would not be surprised to see the XBI outperform if not eventually turn green as M&A fever hits the space. The BIIB failure is large and important for a number of reasons, which I will go through today. 1. While many did […]
February 27 Biotech Update
We still have not gapped and went, so I would think that possibility is lowering but I would not completely discount it. We have some positive news today in the SMID space that could trigger another round of buying but time is running out for the go part of the gap and go. 1. SRPT […]
Sarepta – LGMD2E Data May Become the Next Inflection Point
Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) has a long history with several inflection points through the years. Moving upward from a penny stock back in the days they used to be called AVI Biopharma, through the first inflection point and stepping under the spotlight with first real eteplirsen success, meeting the primary endpoint of increase dystrophin and achieving […]
February 21 Biotech Update
Resistance is acting like resistance. It looked early that we might be peaking above it but clearly that is not the case. These sort of false breakouts (and breakdowns) are killers in range bound markets as it can get one to trade too early. My mantra in these scenarios is that the sector will be […]
