Thursday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
Biotechnology
PRAECIS PHARMA [PRCS] +144.51%
FERMAVIR PHARMACEUTL [FMVR.OB] +28.00%
POLYMEDIX INC [PYMX.OB] +23.08%
ACCENTIA BIOPHARMACE [ABPI] +17.59%
REXAHN PHARMACEUTICL [RXHN.OB] +17.39%
Diagnostic Substances
IMMUNOMEDICS INC [IMMU] +13.59%
AVALON PHARMACEUTIC [AVRX] +12.50%
ASPENBIO PHARMA INC [APNB.OB] +10.84%
REMOTEMDX INC [RMDX.OB] +7.75%
EPIX PHARMACEUTICALS [EPIX] +5.22%
Drug Delivery
BENTLEY PHARMACEUTIC [BNT] +9.18%
EMISPHERE TECH [EMIS] +6.63%
IOMED INC [IOX] +4.91%
SKYEPHARMA PLC [SKYE] +2.67%
NOVADEL PHARMA INC [NVD] +2.61%
Drug Manufacturers
PLANET TECHS INC [PLNT.OB] +33.33%
SEPRACOR INC [SEPR] +8.59%
COLLAGENEX PHARM I [CGPI] +4.90%
ALLOS THERAPEUTICS [ALTH] +2.94%
INTERPHARM HLDGS INC [IPA] +2.93%
Medical Appliances & Equipment
SYNERON MEDICAL LTD. [ELOS] +8.56%
ALPHA PRO TECH [APT] +5.30%
SPECTRANETICS CP T [SPNC] +5.22%
CELSION CORP [CLN] +5.13%
THERAGENICS CORP [TGX] +4.76%
Medical Instruments & Supplies
ENPATH MED INC [NPTH] +10.00%
ELECTRO-OPTICAL SCIE [MELA] +8.19%
ANGEION CORP [ANGN] +7.07%
CRYOCOR, INC. [CRYO] +5.58%
NEUROMETRIX, INC. [NURO] +4.56%
Medical Laboratories & Research
BIOFORCE NANOSCIENCE [BFNH.OB] +21.12% $0
MEDASORB TECHNOLOGS [MSBT.OB] +14.75% $0
ERESEARCHTECHNOLOG [ERES] +7.79% $632.6 M
ALLIANCE IMAGING INC [AIQ] +2.02% $531.8 M
PSYCHEMEDICS NEW [PMD] +1.60%
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Related BHI articles:
- Wednesday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
- Tuesday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
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Praecis Jumps 150% on Glaxo Buyout Offer
by H.S. Ayoub
BioHealthInvestor.com
Shares of Praecis Pharmaceuticals (PRCS) jumped more than 140% in pre-market action on Thursday after GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) made an offer to buy the majority of outstanding common stock of the little biotech for $54.8 million, or $5 a share.
Praecis closed trading on Wednesday at $2 a share.
Key to the buyout is Praecis’s DirectSelect platform technology which allows for use of ultra-large libraries for the discovery of orally active compounds for drug development. The Molecular Discovery Research unit of GSK is very interested in this platform, as it could complement its own drug discovery research.
Praecis also has PPI-2458 in clinical development for cancer indications, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and solid tumors.
Praecis lost over $61 million in fiscal 2005, and has a total worth of $20 million on the market.
And with only about $40 million in cash Praecis needed this deal much more than GSK.
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Related BHI articles:
- GlaxoSmithKline May Benetif from Weak U.S. Dollar
- GSK Vaccine Could Cut Cervical Cancer by 80%
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Anika Receives FDA Approval for Cosmetic Tissue Enhacement Product
by H.S. Ayoub
BioHealthInvestor.com
Shares of Anika Therapeutics (ANIK) are up more than 5% in pre-market action on Thursday after the company announced that it had received final market approval from the FDA for its Cosmetic Tissue Augmentation (CTA) product.
The company jumped 20% back on November 28 after receiving an approvable letter from the FDA, and in that press release the company expected a final approval by year’s end. They were right!
CTA is an injectable form of hyaluronic acid that fills in tissue underneath the outer skin surface, giving a tighter more youthful appearance.
Anika has been seeing a surge in its revenue and profit numbers over the last three years fro its currently approved products. These include, OrthoVisc, a treatment 
for osteoarthritis of the knee; Hyvisc, a treatment for equine osteoarthritis; and Amvisc and Amvisc Plus, HA viscoelastic products for ophthalmic surgery.
Adding CTA could bolster the company’s sales significantly by 2008, as the marketing of the product is expected by mid 2007.
Shares of Anika Therapeutics were trading at $14.09 in pre-market trading.
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Related BHI articles:
- Anika Therapeutics: Keep an Eye on the Chart
- Anika Therapeutics Jumps 20% on FDA Letter
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Eli Lilly Cuts It Throat, Could The Stock Drop To $40?
by 24/7 Wall St
The New York Times hits Eli Lilly (LLY) almost daily with a new article on how the drug company dupped doctors and patients into thinking that its drug for schizophrenia was safe and did not have horrible side effect. The Times sums it up: “The original results showed that patients on Zyprexa, Lilly’s pill for schizophrenia, were 3.5 times as likely to experience high blood sugar levels as those taking a placebo”
The drug is 30% of Lilly’s revenue at $4.2 billion in 2005.
For investors who like risky or distressed investments, Lilly represents an especially dangerout bet. Think of Merck’s Vioxx suits with the possibility that Lilly does not haved a good defence.
Although Lilly’s stock has dropped from $58 to $52 recently, it could go much, much lower. It has not been much below $50 since mid-2002, and that was for a brief period.
According to Morningstar, Lilly has $5 billion in debt. Its cash and equivalents cover that. Cash from operations for the last four quarters is about $3 billion.
Liability suits, if successful, can suck up Lilly’s earnings fairly quickly. And that is the risk. It appears that there are several smoking guns for plantiff’s attorney to take to court. And, the stock could get killed.
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Related BHI articles
- Eli Lilly is Picking On Schizophrenics
- Merck Wants Out of Pfizer’s Shadow
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Wednesday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
Biotechnology
VERNALIS PLC ADR [VNLS] +10.67%
KOSAN BIOSCIENCES [KOSN] +10.66%
OPEXA THERAPEUTICS [OPXA] +10.03%
EMERGENT BIOSOLUTION [EBS] +10.03%
I G I INC [IG] +9.76%
Diagnostic Substances
REMOTEMDX INC [RMDX.OB] +9.32%
EPICEPT CORPORATION [EPCT] +5.52%
ADEZA BIOMEDICAL COR [ADZA] +3.94%
LEXICON GENETICS I [LEXG] +2.54%
THRESHOLD PHARMACEUT [THLD] +2.32%
Drug Delivery
COLUMBIA LABS INC [CBRX] +12.65%
SKYEPHARMA PLC [SKYE] +7.80%
PETMED EXPRESS INC [PETS] +2.06%
MATRIXX INITIATVS [MTXX] +2.01%
QUIGLEY CORP THE [QGLY] +0.84%
Drug Manufacturers
SIGA TECH INC [SIGA] +82.15%
TAPESTRY PHARMA INC [TPPH] +12.66%
UNIGENE LABS INC [UGNE.OB] +8.59%
POZEN INC [POZN] +8.10%
BRADLEY PHARMACTCL [BDY] +5.63%
Medical Appliances & Equipment
THERMAGE, INC. [THRM] +18.09%
ESCALON MED CP [ESMC] +8.24%
EDAP TMS SA ADR [EDAP] +7.73%
SYNERON MEDICAL LTD. [ELOS] +6.86%
QMED INC [QMED] +5.84%
Medical Instruments & Supplies
CARDIOTECH INTL [CTE] +12.50%
CRYOCOR, INC. [CRYO] +9.35%
INOVIO BIOMED CORP [INO] +5.96%
BIOMIMETIC THERAPEUT [BMTI] +5.43%
DTLL INC [DTLI.OB] +4.55%
Medical Laboratories & Research
BIO-IMAGING TECH [BITI] +3.74%
MEDASORB TECHNOLOGS [MSBT.OB] +3.39%
PREMD INC [PME] +2.86%
AETERNA ZENTARIS [AEZS] +2.80%
NEOGENOMICS INC [NGNM.OB] +2.74%
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Related BHI articles:
- Tuesday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
- Monday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
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Pfizer Boosts Dividend More Than Expected
by Chad Brand
Late Monday drug giant Pfizer (PFE) announced a 21 percent increase in its annual dividend, to $1.16 per share. With the stock trading at $25 and change, the new current yield on the stock is a whopping 4.5 percent. I speculated about two weeks ago that investors should expect a bump in the payout of 15 percent, so the magnitude of this increase is a positive surprise from my perspective.
The share price of PFE is unchanged on this news, but is it indeed an immaterial event? I believe value investors will add to positions in light of the more than 20 percent boost to the dividend. Pfizer’s yield should not be equal to that of long-term treasury bonds, and the market will likely correct this.
Assuming investors’ demand for PFE increases, I would expect the yield to fall back toward the 4 percent level. This would put the shares of Pfizer at $29 each, about 12 percent above current levels.
Full Disclosure: Peridot owns shares of Pfizer
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Related BHI Articles:
- Merck Wants Out of Pfizer’s Shadow
- Pfizer Can Still Grow With Biotech Acquisitions
- Pfizer Stops Cholesterol Drug Trial Over Deaths
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FDA Updates Reporting of Adverse Events
This week, the FDA updated its quarterly reporting on Adverse Events. It is a bit of a complicated mess to work your way through. But there are other ways to look at adverse events and given that there have recently been a few drugs experiencing well-publicized adverse events, it seemed like a good subject to explore.
The FDA has Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office that processes requests for information. Among the information that can be requested is a printout of the adverse events for a particular drug, or even those related to a particular company. When submitting a FOIA, you can specify any parameters. The only thing you have to do is (1) be patient - it used to take about 6 weeks, but it does vary, and (2) pay for it, but it is not exorbitant and price depends on how lengthy your research is. Depending on what you ask for, you also may need storage - the reports are computer sheet printouts that can go on for pages, so be careful what parameters you choose. If you choose too broadly, you can wind up with a LOT of unwanted information and paper.
But who else is watching? One more thing about FOIA - it is also sometimes useful for a company, particularly one with a drug having high profile problems, to file a FOIA not only on its own adverse events reports, but to file a separate one asking who is filing FOIAs on your drug’s adverse events reports. That’s right, you can discover whose looking at your adverse events. Of what use is that? Well, I call it the Early Warning System. First, you can see how many law firms are looking at it. That can be an indicator of an issue. Second, you can see if reporters are looking as well. Lastly, you see anyone else who is looking and you can gauge the level of interest in your drug. It is not a definitive look, after all, most would use a consultant to file such a FOIA, but it can be illuminating.
If you are interested in filing a FOIA, or having someone do it for you, you can get information from the FDA Handbook on FOIA or you can see the track record of FDA meeting FOIA requests by consulting the FDA FOIA Annual Report.
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Related BHI Articles:
- Adverse Events Reporting and Supplements
- New Commissioner Needs to Restore FDA Image
- Senate Passes Dietary Supplement Adverse Event Bill
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Geron’s Research Arsenal: Stem Cells, Cloning, Cancer
by H.S. Ayoub
BioHealthInvestor.com
Shares of Geron Corp (GERN) gained over 3% on Tuesday after the company announced positive early preclinical data.
The company’s telomerase inhibitor GRN163L had positive synergistic effects in mice expressing human breast cancer when used along with chemotherapy.
This is the first study to show GRN163L as a radiation sensitizer in cancer treatment.
Geron is best known for its world leading intellectual property portfolio of stem cell and nuclear transfer (cloning) technology. In fact, Geron holds key patents in the isolation and harvesting of human embryonic and germ line stem cells.
It also holds world rights to the nuclear transfer technology that had produced the famous Dolly the Sheep. Although there has recently been various other cloning methods developed by other organizations that have arguably lowered the strong value of the Dolly nuclear transfer technique.
But the company also holds key patents related to telomerase research and its application in cancer treatment. Telomeres are short strands of DNA that have been shown in studies to be implicated in cellular aging. In fact, the data has shown that as the cell ages telomeres become smaller in size.
Telomerase is an enzyme that apparently plays a role in cancer progression. Specifically, it delays the shortening of telomeres in cancer cells, and thus, making those cells theoretically immortal.
Geron’s telomerase inhibitor candidates, as the name implies, aim to block the activity of the enzyme and thus, rendering cancer cells mortal, and in essence, killing them.
What makes the company’s cancer program so exciting is that studies have shown telomerase is universal; almost all kinds of cancer can be theoretically treated.
Geron’s stem cell programs are various, including research aimed at treating spinal cord injuries, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Osteoarthritis, Osteoporosis, Hematology and other conditions.
With about $175 million in cash, no debt and a market cap of only $600 million, Geron looks tasty as a takeover target.
But the company is a fighter, and would probably vote down any offer deemed even a little low.
Geron has legally protected its patent portfolio vigorously in the past, so much so that it has been regularly criticized. It could be possible that regulatory bodies could get involved and loosen the company’s patent claims, but this is unlikely. 
The company is getting better at providing cell lines and working with other organizations, while protecting the underlying claims of their key patents.
Geron closed trading on Tuesday at $9.16, and just recently the company sold $40 million in stock for $8 a share. This makes it current worth on the market only 14.5% above the recent stock offering.
The life science conference season heats up again late winter early spring. Geron should have a multitude of study results to announce during the next few months.
Also, Considering the company had traded as high as $12 back in May of 2005, the current stock price seems at least 30% cheap.
Geron Corp has been chosen as a BioHealth Investor Stock Pick.
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Related BHI articles:
- StemCells Inc. Transplant Patient Heads Home
- First Stem Cell Trial Excites Everyone
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Tuesday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
Biotechnology
HESKA CORPORATION [HSKA] +10.67%
IDERA PHARMACEUTICAL [IDP] +8.76%
NUTRITION 21 INC [NXXI] +8.00%
METABASIS THERAPEUTI [MBRX] +5.19%
CYTORI THERAPEUTICS [CYTX] +4.76%
Diagnostic Substances
IMMUNOMEDICS INC [IMMU] +11.11%
SYNOVICS PHARMACEUTL [SYVC.OB] +6.25%
AVALON PHARMACEUTIC [AVRX] +4.93%
PRESSURE BIOSCIENC [PBIO] +4.19%
BIOMODA INC [BMOD.OB] +3.45%
Drug Delivery
COLUMBIA LABS INC [CBRX] +3.05%
NOVADEL PHARMA INC [NVD] +2.61%
SKYEPHARMA PLC [SKYE] +2.53%
BIOVAIL CORP [BVF] +2.05%
FLAMEL TECH SA ADR [FLML] +1.37%
Drug Manufacturers
PLANET TECHS INC [PLNT.OB] +29.31%
ALEXZA PHARMACEUTICA [ALXA] +5.85%
KERYX BIOPHARM INC [KERX] +5.64%
REGENERX BIOPHARM IN [RGN] +5.50%
CORTEX PHARM INC [COR] +4.62%
Medical Appliances & Equipment
MEDICAL SOLUTION MGT [MSMT.OB] +260.00%
VNUS MEDICAL TECHNOL [VNUS] +9.01%
EMERGENT GROUP INC [EMGP.OB] +6.15%
ESCALON MED CP [ESMC] +5.12%
NORTHSTAR NEUROSCI [NSTR] +5.08%
Medical Instruments & Supplies
BIOTEL INC [BTEL.OB] +19.05%
TUTOGEN MEDICAL INC [TTG] +8.33%
PROTHERICS PLC [PTIL] +3.39%
EP MEDSYSTEMS INC [EPMD] +3.25%
CHINA MEDICAL TECH [CMED] +2.42%
Medical Laboratories & Research
MEDASORB TECHNOLOGS [MSBT.OB] +7.27%
BIO-IMAGING TECH [BITI] +2.47%
PACIFIC BIOMETRICS N [PBME.OB] +0.94%
ERESEARCHTECHNOLOG [ERES] +0.79%
LABORATORY CORP NEW [LH] +0.76%
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Related BHI articles:
- Monday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
- Friday’s Top Biotech and Medical Stocks
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Gilead Submits New Drug Application to the FDA
by H.S. Ayoub
BioHealthInvestor.com
Gilead Sciences (GILD) announced after markets closed on Monday that it had filed a New Drug Application (NDA) with the FDA for ambrisentan, a once-a-day treatment for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH).
The application follows two Phase III clinical trials and three phase II studies. About 400 patients continue to recieve ambrisentan in longer term clinical studies.
Ambrisentan works by blocking Endothelin, a small peptide hormone that helps regulate blood flow and cell growth. High levels of Endothelin has been implicated in PAH.
It is estimated that about 200,000 suffer from PAH world wide.
Shares of Gilead Sciences closed at $63.79 on Monday, near the 52-week high of $70.
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Related BHI articles:
- Gilead Sciences Acquires Myogen
- Gilead to Licese Generic Viread to Companies in India
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