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Biotechnology

Biogen Earnings Swing July 2018Biogen's (344.10 at close at the date of this writing) and Eisai's recent success with BAN24O1, an experimental medication for Alzheimer's which is currently in mid-stage clinical trials, in addition to a recent price target raise by Citi, and overall bullish analyst sentiment led to a rally between July 6-9, 2018. Although the clinical trial's success was certainly reason for bullish sentiment, it ran too far too fast and indicators pointed towards to a sell off. I thus opened put options on July 9, expiring July 13 2018 (currently in the money). We are now only about two weeks away from Biogen's earning report. After studying historical data and charts, I've found that there is often a sell off prior to earnings OR there is a run up then a slight sell off right before the earnings date. I've annotated the chart with periods that indicate this. In this case, I believe downward momentum will continue followed by a slight rally pre-earnings then a sell off. Opening JUL20 puts may be a smart move at this time. In the long term, Biogen -0.21% is very scalable and overall is very promising. I agree with Citi's PT of 371. www.wsj.com
NASDAQ:BIIBShort
by UnknownUnicorn2997486
Small Pharma Big Backers and Partners - LONG SNG (Synairgen)Prudent Drug Discovery Company Low market cap ( appox £13m at time of writing ). Issues shares very rarely ( last placing nearly four years ago ). Has material interest in its work from larger partners ( Pharmaxis ). Sold interest in LOXL2 programme for £5m to Pharmaxis in December. Pharmaxis continues to fund and develop LOXL2 inhibitors and Synairgen retains interest across all fibrotic indications at circa 17% of all partnering proceeds. Potential of drug appears across multiple uses now ( not just lung-related ) and indications from Pharmaxis looking very good. Recent interviews from Pharmaxis management suggest a good chance of a deal with major pharma in H2. Low free float in the stock ( 60% in hands of major shareholders ). Major funds holding ( Woodford Investment Management and Lansdowne Partners ). High profile investors holding stakes ( Richard Griffiths and Leonard Licht ). These high profile investors have been raising, rather than reducing their stakes in the company, periodically. For a risky smallcap biotech stock it appears well placed to survive and thrive, regardless of the short term success of a sale/licencing deal of LOXL2 by Pharmaxis, making it considerably less risky than most biotech stocks in the long term. However, the indications and noises being made about LOXL2 by Pharmaxis are looking as positive as you could hope for, and backed up by them putting their money where their mouth is in the first place and increasing their stake for cash.
SLong
by richthenewbie
3
Biotech BasketGenerally speaking we're all pretty aware that a "Buy & Hold" strategy works well. Yet, we find outselves "trading". Despite the evidence indicating this is unwise. In a snapshot view we can take a look at the daily chart (nearly a years worth) and view our 3 stocks in the Biotech basket - and we can pick up some obvious patterns. These stocks are very much sentiment based. They swing wildly, before Earnings calls - but less after. These stocks move with extreme volatility. This is typical of sentiment driven stocks. These stocks offer plenty of activity for a swing trader, or scalper, and show trade-able features. I'd like to talk about rebalancing . The items I mentioned before are true, and seem as though they add up to a perfect suite of scenario's for a trader to load up on downtrends midcycle before an earnings call. I wouldn't argue with that type of play, I think it'd probably make quite a bit of money. Especially if you were doing it with derivatives. That is a great strategy. There are many that could be applied. Today, we're going to explore a boring one: Re-balancing. Selecting a basket. This is no small feat. Many people would pull up a screener and begin going to town on fundamentals, reading news, and generally looking for data which would show a stock in our Biotech sector to either be developing "an un-fair advantage" or to "be significantly mispriced". That's ok. You SHOULD do that. Thats called research, and it should be the majority of what you do as a trader. It should be be even more-so as an investor. Today we cheated. Thats right. We took a look at the Portfolio of Orbimed's top ten holdings, and decided to look at three stocks which in the last quarter Orbimed was bullish on. Orbimed chose to increase holdings of 3 companies. REGN , CI , NASDAQ:VRTX , and we will use these 3 stocks as our basket today. Why? Because they're good stocks. Prove it? Done. Now what is re-balancing and why does a trader care? Rebalancing is a tool most commonly used by Investors . It is useful because it keeps an Investors Risk Management in correlation with their Risk Appetite. This is important, especially for long term holders. In a group as volatile as Biotech, it is even more important - as it lends well to to explosive compounding and can lead to wildly unbalanced portfolios in a relatively short time. One of my favorite examples of rebalancing (and the only one we will discuss here) is practiced by selling and buying based on risk thresholds. A threshold is set like so: Define a risk appetite (percentage of holdings to go into a given asset class) Define a risk factor (percentage of individual positions of a given sector of holdings) Manage risk (buy or sell from a position to meet the percentage guidance originally set) I.E 33% REGN , 33% CI , 33% VRTX Keep in mind you can overweight or underweight any position you choose. Afterall, it is your portfolio, and you are a trader! Why do you care? Following this set of principles gives the trader Long-term-guidance . This is one of the most overlooked portions of a traders strategy. There must be some form of long term guidance. This is why a trader should care. We looked at the stocks aforementioned and pointed out many points for which a trader could buy, or sell, to seemingly outperform the market. Likely, a good trader with good indicators trading in between earnings calls would indeed do well. Now lets take a look at the long term. To Be Continued....
NYSE:CI
by blessmywork
4
INSY Target $23 FDA Cannabidiol Fast trackFDA Grants INSYS Therapeutics ‘Fast Track’ Designation for Cannabidiol (CBD) Oral Solution as INSYS Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:INSY), announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation to the company’s cannabidiol (CBD) oral solution for the treatment of Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare and complex genetic disorder characterized by insatiable appetite in children that often leads to obesity and type 2 diabetes. “FDA’s Fast Track designation will enable an expedited regulatory review process for our proprietary formulation of CBD in the treatment of pediatric patients with Prader-Willi syndrome, a debilitating condition which currently does not have any approved products available,” said Steve Sherman, senior vice president of regulatory affairs for INSYS Therapeutics. “We plan to start the clinical development program for this promising therapy in late first quarter of 2018.” The most common known genetic cause of life-threatening obesity in children, Prader-Willi syndrome has a prevalence of approximately 1 in 15,000, according to the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association, occurring in males and females equally and in all races. “We are very encouraged by the FDA’s decision to put CBD for Prader-Willi on the Fast Track and believe it is good news for these young patients, their families and clinicians,” said Saeed Motahari, president and chief executive officer of INSYS Therapeutics. “This special regulatory designation represents a significant milestone in the company’s R&D program, which is focused on developing and delivering safe, effective and novel treatment options using cannabinoids and novel drug delivery technology for unmet medical needs.” About INSYS INSYS Therapeutics is a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes innovative drugs and novel drug delivery systems of therapeutic molecules that improve patients’ quality of life. Using proprietary spray technology and capabilities to develop pharmaceutical cannabinoids, INSYS is developing a pipeline of products intended to address unmet medical needs and the clinical shortcomings of existing commercial products. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements including regarding (i) our belief that FDA’s Fast Track designation will enable an expedited regulatory review process for our proprietary formulation of CBD in the treatment of pediatric patients with Prader-Willi syndrome, (ii) our belief that Prader-Willi syndrome currently does not have any approved products available and that our proprietary CBD formulation has potential to be a viable treatment option and (iii) our plan to start the clinical development program for this promising therapy in late first quarter of 2018. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this news release; actual results may differ materially from those in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, many of which are beyond our control. These factors include, but are not limited to, risk factors described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2016 and subsequent updates that may occur in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements, except as may be required by law.
ILong
by StockPicksNYC98
ITUS stock climbs after news of new patentItus Corporation, a company that develops, aquires, and licenses emerging technologies in the areas of biotechnology, is in the stages of developing technology that can detect cancer at an earlier rate through a blood test. The company saw its stock jump by 85 percent upon releasing news of the patent issuance of the new technology, this was on Sept. 18. The biotechnology industry has grown by 7 percent in the past three months, and in an expanding economy, I would think that this industry has room to continue growing. The S&P continues to grow, gaining 4 points (it is to note that this move was on lower than average volume) at the time of writing this. 90 percent of the market saw new highs today, showing good sentiment. However, the possibility of interest rate hikes still looms over the market, as well as climbing oil prices and President Trumps proposed tax reforms. ITUS has rebounded off support at the 2.50 level and could hit a target of 5.00. It currently sits at 3.33, 51 percent from its 52-week high. Volume is increasing and RSI is showing bullish strength. I am long, having entered at 2.75. Risk is controlled to 3 percent of my account, should the trade go the other way. With earnings coming out, a good report could send the stock up to its target very quickly. There is still a chance to jump in at 3.50 or better.
ILong
by Brandon50115
CELGENE PULLBACK PROVIDES A GREAT LONG OPPORTUNITYCelgene is one of my top picks in the biotech sector, it is fundamentally strong, and the chart is providing a great potential breakout picture. I have entered half of my position around 127.50$ and looking to add around 123$ with a hard stop below 116$ below 115$ there is a chance that we get back to 100$ though i am not expecting this scenario right now. Targets are new all time highs around 150$. Notice this big sideway phase and the recent breakout, in my view this pullback could be a good chance to enter. I encourage everybody to make his own analysis. Blessings
CLong
by IamJeanPaul
Gilead Biotech Aiming HighAlthough the ideas I share with you all revolve around currency pairs, I thought I'd share another specialty of mine: Biotech and pharma stock. If you're in the field, you may have already heard about Gilead having one of the best price to earning ratio of the major biotech companies. You may have also noticed the sharp decline that they experienced in the summer of 2015 which has largely been attributed to a loss in momentum due to the expiration of their patents and increased competition in the market. One could also argue that investors selling their stock contributed to the snowballing drop that seems to still be underway. Despite all this, there has been a lot of positive news recently with current projects that were once in the pipeline (such as Harvoni and Sovaldi) that have now been approved for the treatment of Hepatitis C. This puts them squarely back in competition with AbbVie and other similarly sized companies. In addition to other projects, the temptation of selling put options on Gilead at this very attractive price should yield dividends within the coming years. That said, the reversal is still not quite there yet but this is a very long term play that you should be ready for. As with currency pairs, this idea can turn on a dime so you should always take the necessary precautions!
NASDAQ:GILDLong
by Cohiba93
bottom of another possible cup and handle Being with this ticker for awhile I've been through the ups and downs. I outlined a few areas where we see run ups and blowoff tops. It's my estimation that we get a 15 10 20% haircut at times with the blowoff. That's the nature of runs maybe? Maybe even more so with spec bio. Anyway I am eyeballing the makings of the bottom of another possible cup and handle formation, we just went through one. PIRS is news driven and has nothing but good news for months. Value based asset that is proving itself, imo.
P
by tradetraderson