It's a Record Year for Biotech IPOs and Still More to Come
Source: Peter Winter, BioWorld  (11/11/14)
"The total of IPOs completed by biotech companies, whose primary focus is on developing therapeutics, this year now stands at 67, a milestone that no one in the industry could ever have predicted at the beginning of this year." More >

Biotech Watchlist Update: Small-Cap Biotechs Struggle to Rebound
Source: Tracy Salcedo-Chourré of The Life Sciences Report  (11/6/14)
When the biotechnology market hit a speed bump in early 2014, every stock in the sector was jolted. Large-cap biotech and big pharma have largely recovered, but small- and micro-cap companies haven't yet entirely recouped the losses. The performance of Streetwise Reports' Biotechnology Watchlist to date reflects this trend: The portfolio lingered in negative territory after the late-winter punch, and hovers near breakeven as of Nov. 3. To get a handle on the drivers of small-cap stock price volatility, The Life Sciences Report turned to a pair of the analysts who selected companies for the 2014 Watchlist, John McCamant of the Medical Technology Stock Letter and George Zavoico of MLV & Co. In this recap, the two experts offer updates on the companies they selected for the portfolio. More >

Orphan Drug Price Rises Indicate Sector Trends
Source: EP Vantage   (11/5/14)
"The report indicates that orphan drugs have been successful in sustaining their eye-watering prices. But with so many non-orphan drugs coming in at tens of thousands of dollars, payers may grow intolerant of steep price rises across the spectrum." More >

Huge Growth Delivered in Very Small Packages: SeeThruEquity's Ajay Tandon and Brandon Primack
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (10/30/14)
Institutional investors are, by and large, unable to own shares in companies with market valuations of less than $100 million, which means most sellside analysts don't write research on very small companies. The paradox: The micro-cap space is where investors can find the tenbaggers. That disconnect and its attendant irony are not lost on SeeThruEquity's Ajay Tandon and Brandon Primack. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Tandon and Primack discuss four companies nurturing seeds of dramatic growth that could materialize in the wake of upcoming catalysts. More >

The Game-Changing Potential of DNA Vaccines: Inovio's Dr. Joseph Kim
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (10/29/14)
Since Edward Jenner's development of the smallpox vaccine in the late 1790s, humankind has enjoyed the benefit of immunization, which has saved many millions of lives. Today, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (INO:NASDAQ) is in the forefront of developing DNA vaccines, inserting engineered genes into cellular machinery to synthesize proteins that, in turn, generate antibodies that fight disease. An additional benefit is a powerful T-cell response, which harnesses the patient's own capacity to fight infections and cancers. If pivotal studies read out favorably, DNA immunization could prove a true game changer in healthcare. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Inovio President and CEO J. Joseph Kim discusses his company's platform technology, which addresses both therapeutic and preventive methods of fighting disease. More >

Is Biotech M&A Mojo Here to Stay? Bright Prospects and Rising Firepower Drive Deals
Source: Andrew Forman, EY  (10/23/14)
"Despite modest revenue growth, the industry has provided a total return to shareholders in excess of the performance of most major stock indices in 2014." More >

The Evolution of the Cancer Cure
Source: Ray Blanco, The Daily Reckoning  (10/20/14)
"Provided new therapies keep becoming available, a cancer patient can sometimes "hitchhike" from one to the next for a long time." More >

How to Bargain Hunt for Hot Biotechs: Edison's Pooya Hemami
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (10/15/14)
Every business day, Edison Investment Research Analyst Pooya Hemami scours the global markets for life science companies with upside flowing through their product pipelines. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Dr. Hemami tells us where to look for biotech bargains, including a few top-fliers and a handful of companies that have experienced temporary setbacks but are poised for blue sky. More >

Shabbvie Marks Difference Between Great and Exceptional Deal Quarter
Source: EP Vantage  (10/15/14)
"The summer slowdown was officially cancelled this year as $100B of third-quarter mergers and takeovers blasted the previous period into oblivion—or at least this is how things stood before news emerged that AbbVie was having second thoughts about buying Shire." More >

Griffin Securities' Keith Markey on the Promise of RNAi and Synthetic Biology
Source: Michael Goodman of The Life Sciences Report  (10/9/14)
Griffin Securities has assembled a biotech portfolio weighted toward companies pursuing high-science therapeutic approaches. However, as analyst Keith Markey explains, through a combination of pipeline diversification, positive clinical data, and low-cost research and development strategies, many companies are able to mitigate the risk inherent in their technologies. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Markey discusses near-term catalysts for some of the names he follows. More >

Traders' Infatuation with Ebola Drugs Causing 'Rollercoaster' Market, Says Tekmira CEO
Source: Riley McDermid, BioSpace  (10/8/14)
"Stocks of MAP Pharmaceuticals, which produced the first successful Ebola treatment, ZMapp, and those of Chimerix, which has had its antiviral, brincidofovir, approved for experimental treatment, have all climbed by double digits as the virus has spread globally." More >

A Tour of Australian Biotechs with Morgans’ Scott Power
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (10/2/14)
Australia is a powerhouse for medical science innovations, and nobody understands that better than Scott Power of Morgans Financial Ltd. Power watched the weaker Australian firms go the way of the dodo bird during the downturn in the biotech sector earlier this year, leaving only the fittest for investors to choose from. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, he identifies a promising selection of survivors—biotechs with the power to rejuvenate an evolving portfolio. More >

Avoid These Biotech Stocks to Minimize Risk
Source: Kyle Anderson, Money Morning  (9/30/14)
With just a couple of tips, investors can drastically reduce the risk and go on to benefit from massive windfalls generated by a company's breakthrough drug development. More >

Three Biotech Investment Ideas that Disrupt and Diversify: Anita Dushyanth
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (9/25/14)
Good management. Promising therapies in the pipeline. Marketed products that bolster the bottom line. Investors crave these bread-and-butter qualities in small-cap biotech and medtech companies. Anita Dushyanth of Zacks Investment Research relies on the staples, but also looks for something special, something that disrupts. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Dushyanth describes several small companies that have spiced up their offerings. More >

Looking for Love: Unpartnered Pipeline Drugs Gain Value
Source: Jacob Plieth and Amy Brown, EP Vantage   (9/22/14)
"It is deals like Afrezza's that continue to fuel interest in unpartnered assets, however improbable and overblown the forecasts might seem." More >

Roadmap Capital's Hugh Cleland and Stephen Ireland: Due Diligence Rules in Biotech Investment
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (9/17/14)
Excellent diligence doesn't always mean you'll be saved from a nasty surprise. The nature of investing in biotech means assuming the risk that a therapeutic development program may fail. Roadmap Capital's Hugh Cleland and Stephen Ireland employ their combined financial expertise and biotech savvy to mitigate that risk. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Cleland and Ireland share ideas on how investors might approach potential biotech investments without engaging a team of analysts. They also bring three potential high-return stocks to investors' attention, as well as one private name they anticipate will come to the public market soon. More >

Biotechs with Upside Possibilities Target Ebola and Liver Disease: MLV & Co.'s Vernon Bernardino
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (9/10/14)
Everybody knows that biotech ideas can become huge gainers for investors, but understanding the technology platforms, the unmet needs and the valuations can be daunting, especially in spaces where a number of players are developing products. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Vernon Bernardino of MLV & Co. brings some clarity and perspective to investors who could reap windfalls from small-cap names in which shareholder value has yet to be created and realized.
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Purple Is the New Orange: Industry OK with FDA Biosimilar Listings
Source: Mari Serebrov, BioWorld  (9/10/14)
"The Purple Book will serve as a tool for state health agencies, prescribers and pharmacists in determining which follow-ons can automatically be substituted or serve as an alternative for a specific reference biologic." More >

Steve Brozak: Big-Picture Biotech Stocks Rule the Future
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (9/4/14)
When Steve Brozak performs diligence on biotech stocks, he's always looking for an angle. Brozak, president and managing director at WBB Securities, wants to see how new technology platforms and novel ideas fit into tomorrow's healthcare system, which he believes will be unsustainable without therapies that work more efficiently and hold promise as true disease-modifying agents. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Brozak brings eight names to investors' attention. Given time, each holds the potential to be a huge gainer. More >

Six Innovative Australian Opportunities from Canaccord's Matthijs Smith
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (8/28/14)
Canaccord Genuity's man on the beat in Australia delivers the insider scoop on how biotechs Down Under are faring in the markets. Matthijs Smith reveals a world of great firms, new products and competitive buys in this interview with the The Life Sciences Report. His enthusiasm for his work—spotting opportunities that help people cope with illness and injury—is contagious, and could bring renewed vigor to investors' portfolios. More >

Laidlaw's Yale Jen: Biotech 101 for Buyers and Sellers
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (8/28/14)
Former biotech consultant Yale Jen picked up a few tricks advising companies on their pipelines before he came to Wall Street as a sellside analyst. These days Jen, managing director and senior biotechnology analyst at Laidlaw & Co., advises institutional investors to own stocks with stories that are not yet well understood by the market. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Jen offers investors a handful of names for consideration, each of which has an exceptional value proposition and exciting growth prospects. More >

The Clear Map to this "Hidden" Investment Treasure
Source: Ernie Tremblay, Money Morning   (8/25/14)
"As scientists reach the discovery limits of 'one-size-fits-all' drugs and the ailments that respond to them, such as infections and circulatory diseases, they find themselves up against tougher, wilier, more intractable challenges. . ." More >

Medtech Shifts from High Gear into Overdrive: Canaccord’s William Plovanic
Source: Dan Levy of The Life Sciences Report  (8/19/14)
Rapid growth in the medical device industry and changes in the regulatory environment have propelled valuations in the medtech sector to the high end of the range. But new technologies create new investment opportunities. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, William Plovanic of Canaccord Genuity highlights investment opportunities in medtech companies with innovative products targeting high-impact areas such as obesity, diabetes and wound care. More >

Wedbush Securities' Liana Moussatos on the Art and Science of Picking Biotechs with Upside
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (8/18/14)
Liana Moussatos of Wedbush Securities doesn't wait for the catalyst to strike. She, like other successful investors, picks her targets and takes profits earlier, while less sophisticated investors wait for the press releases. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Moussatos describes a group of biotech stocks rich with upcoming catalysts, and invites investors to sample what she expects will be exceptional profits. More >

Bring On the Orphans: Aegis Capital's Raghuram Selvaraju Lays Out a Winning Biotech Strategy
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (8/14/14)
For former drug researcher Raghuram "Ram" Selvaraju, picking biotech stocks is both science and art. It's about understanding the competitive landscape and the mechanisms of drug action, and then making sure all the pieces fit together for a plausible investment case. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, the managing director and head of healthcare equity research at Aegis Capital lays out his growth hypothesis for companies—several targeting orphan diseases—that he believes will nurture portfolios. More >