Global Expansion and Affordable Care Act Boost Life Science Tools and Diagnostics: Bryan Brokmeier
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (11/7/13)
Two years ago, medtech was thought to be waning. Investors were deserting companies perceived to be short on margins and sure to be demolished by the Affordable Care Act. Today the landscape is transformed: Medtech companies are embracing international markets, preparing for increased volumes of procedures and enjoying new, rich valuations. Do they have what it takes to woo investors back? In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Bryan Brokmeier of the Maxim Group picks a small group of names that have performed brilliantly over the past year and that he expects will treat investors very well. More >

2013 Biotech Watchlist Update: Companies Climb and Crumble on Catalysts
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report   (10/31/13)
The Life Sciences Report's Biotech Watchlist, introduced in January 2013, is composed of 17 companies that industry analysts felt showed promise for the coming year—companies with productive pipelines, good management and stock-moving catalysts on the horizon. The new year presented legitimate prospects for portfolio growth and, indeed, that has been the case. In this update, we summarize the current status of Watchlist companies and introduce our Portfolio Tracker, showing the status of each company in real time. More >

A Compulsion for Brain Science: Zack Lynch
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (10/17/13)
Roughly a third of the world's population feels the burden of some type of brain, spinal cord or peripheral nerve disease: dementia, depression, compulsion, infection, trauma. Understanding the need for investment, awareness and public policy advocacy in finding solutions for these afflictions, Zack Lynch founded the Neurotechnology Industry Organization in 2006, and serves as its executive director. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Lynch makes a bullish case for a growing industry and discusses how he proposes to increase funding for neuroscience from both private and public sources, thereby increasing options for patients and opportunities for investors. More >

Biotech Companies Record Another Positive Quarter
Source: Peter Winter, BioWorld  (10/7/13)
"In all there were 27 public offering transactions generating $1.26 billion in the third quarter, with companies continuing to take advantage of their higher stock valuations and welcoming capital markets to raise funds for their operations." More >

In Vitro Diagnostics Growth to Spearhead Future of Medtech
Source: Elizabeth Cairns, EP Vantage  (9/23/13)
"The analysis of the top 20 sectors of the worldwide medical device market reveals that the IVD sector is expanding at a CAGR of 5.1%, outpacing the overall medtech market growth rate of 4.5%." More >

Hidden Finds in Regenerative and Medical Technology: Jeff Cohen
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (9/12/13)
Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc.'s Jeff Cohen regularly explores the frontiers of regenerative and medical technology looking for solid investment opportunities. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Cohen reveals promising finds in one of the world's fastest-growing business sectors. From robotics to skin grafts, Cohen knows his science and his market. More >

Griffin Securities' Keith Markey Gives Performance Reviews on Four Favorite Biotech Names
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (9/12/13)
As science director for Griffin Securities, Keith Markey knows his way around the advanced technologies of the most promising research in biotech. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Markey explains the science behind new developments in the antibiotic, diabetic and dermatological fields, highlighting ground-floor investment opportunities that investors will not want to miss. More >

Medtech Stock Update: Public Policy Forces Restructuring, M&A Activity
Source: Zacks Equity Research  (9/10/13)
"The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), particularly the medical device excise tax, has taken a heavy toll on the medtech sector, hurting pricing decisions of the companies and subjecting them to tremendous margin pressure." More >

Digging Below the Surface of Neurotechnology: Casey Lynch
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (9/5/13)
Neuroscience is about as complex as it gets. The central nervous system contains the brain and spinal cord, where hundreds of billions of neurons are located—and that doesn't include the peripheral nervous system. Casey Lynch, managing director of NeuroInsights, works to make sense of both the disease processes affecting the nervous system and potential therapies that could help patients and enrich investors. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Lynch brings some clarity to the complexity, and speaks frankly about the wild goose that some Alzheimer's disease investigators have been chasing. More >

Medical Conference Schedule Sept. 2013 through March 2014
Source: Michael King, JP Morgan  (9/5/13)
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Breakthrough Therapy Designation Speeds Up Drug Approvals
Source: Patricia Dimond, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News  (9/4/13)
"The FDA's new development path is specifically designed for experimental agents that produce large and unprecedented treatment effects in early clinical trials. If a drug is designated a breakthrough therapy, the FDA says it will expedite the development and review of the drug." More >

Adventures in the Biotech Trade with Jim Letourneau
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (8/15/13)
Jim Letourneau, publisher of Big Picture Speculator, shares tales of strange biotechnologies worth buying into—such as cures for high dental bills and dog breath—in this interview with The Life Sciences Report. Letourneau likes to invest in biotech firms because their stock values are less volatile than commodity-based companies, which are chained to uncontrollable price fluctuations. You are advised to hold onto your brain (quite literally), while Letourneau describes a few curious—and potentially profitable—biotech investment adventures. More >

Our Worry-Free Way of Investing in Biotech
Source: Greg Madison, Money Morning  (8/2/13)
"We are on the cusp of some truly amazing discoveries. There is a tier of biotech companies working around the clock on products with amazing potential." More >

How to Invest in the Golden Age of Biotech
Source: Diane Alter, Money Morning  (6/26/13)
"Propelled by new drug debuts, research advances and a full pipeline, a long stretch of rewarding breakthrough products should continue to flow in the years ahead." More >

For Love and Money: Three Growth Stocks from Casey's Alex Daley
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (6/13/13)
Alex Daley, senior editor of Casey Extraordinary Technology, seeks out undiscovered names because that's where he finds the big upside. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Daley brings his best ideas to investors who won't shy away from unloved biotech and medtech names. Sharpen your pencils, steel your nerves and take note of these three growth stories. More >

How to Play the Invest-for-Tomorrow Game in Medtech: Alan Brochstein
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (6/6/13)
Alan Brochstein of AB Analytical Services blogs, publishes and creates model portfolios for retail investors and consults with institutional investors. He leans heavily toward medical technology because he sees the industry's devices, instrumentation and molecular diagnostics as huge efficiency creators and money savers for hospitals. He never pulls the trigger on a stock unless it has adequate insider ownership and superb management—two ingredients that almost always lead to success. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Brochstein highlights several turnaround stories that he believes can create real shareholder value and make money for investors. More >

Diagnostics and Stem Cells Power Productive Portfolios: Kevin DeGeeter
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (5/30/13)
New medical tests can be moneymakers for small- and mid-cap companies: They save insurers the pain of paying more to treat maladies and save patients from unnecessary treatments. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Senior Biotechnology Analyst and Director Kevin DeGeeter of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. makes his case for diagnostics companies with compelling ideas in the realms of cancer, cardiovascular and surgical testing. He also has one interesting stem cell idea to share.
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The Approval Process in Action
Source: The Life Sciences Report and Visual Capitalist  (5/1/13)
What catalysts in the drug development process move biotech company stocks? The savvy investor must know what steps in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval process can propel a stock up or down. From drug discovery to the much-anticipated PDUFA date, The Life Sciences Report and the Visual Capitalist have collaborated on an infographic that describes both the process and related catalysts. More >

Gene Patent Case: Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Industry-Rattling Suit
Source: Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News  (4/16/13)
"If the U.S. Supreme Court reached any consensus on the patenting of human genes, it was not evident from yesterday’s oral arguments, in which the justices posed questions using analogies of plants from the Amazon and chocolate chip cookies, while plaintiff Myriad Genetics invoked its own metaphor of a baseball bat." More >

In Biotech, Bad Management Trumps Good Science
Source: Stephen Nagler, MedPro Investors LLC  (4/2/13)
"Honesty and reliability, including full and accurate disclosure of corporate results, achievements and expectations, is a fundamental condition of good management, which investors must be able to rely upon as a condition of investing." More >

Three Outside-the-Box Biotechs
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/28/13)
I had a really nice chat with Griffin Securities analyst and scientific director Keith Markey about a wide-ranging group of topics. My goal is to always talk about individual biotech and sometimes medtech stocks, but we got started on another subject right away. Although he's been an analyst for 25 years now, Markey started his career as a molecular biologist doing wet lab bench research. So, I thought my first and most natural question would be about how the biotech industry has changed from the drug discovery perspective. He says it hasn't, at least in one sense. "It's still about the biochemical pathways," he says. "They still pave the way to new therapeutic approaches. It was basic research that led Genentech and Amgen to pursue their initial drugs, a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and erythropoietin," he says. More >

Solving the R&D Investment Dilemma with Project Funding: Mark Kessel
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/21/13)
Big pharma knows how to market products. But has it lost a step on the drug development side? Is there a better way to incentivize drug development and make money at it? Mark Kessel, co-founder and partner at private equity firm Symphony Capital LLC, has developed an investment technique that funds promising biotech companies without exposure to all the losses built into a startup model. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Kessel talks about his method and how it has worked with specific biotech companies. More >

Biotech Sector Analysis: March Madness
Source: John McCamant, Medical Technology Stock Letter  (3/15/13)
"Sound sector and company fundamentals are intact, and improving in some cases. The industry gatekeeper—the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—continues to be cooperative. The bullish stock market also bodes well—as cash flows into healthcare funds remain abundant—driving many stocks to what appear to be extended levels." More >

This Healthcare Fund Is Up 70%: Why I'm Not Selling
Source: Steve Sjuggerud, Steve Sjuggerud's Daily Wealth  (3/12/13)
"Have your exit plan in place, but don't sell. As I've explained many times, this market has the potential to run much higher." More >

What Will Boost Medtech Stocks? Look for a Better Mousetrap, Says William Plovanic
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (2/21/13)
Growth in the medical technology industry may have slowed, and governmental hurdles may make the forecast gloomy, but value plays await the investor who understands how innovation can drive company stock prices upward. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, William Plovanic, analyst and managing director with Canaccord Genuity, talks about his top names in medtech and why he believes investors need to take advantage of the slowdown now. He also ruminates on the potential effects of Obamacare's impending implementation. More >