Other Clouds Forming Behind Supreme Court Ruling
Source: BioWorld, Mari Serebrov  (7/3/12)
"Under the health care law, makers of brand drugs could lose $155B over the next decade due to higher discounts, increased Medicaid rebates, taxes and competition from biosimilars." More >

After Roche Merger, Biotech Tail Wags Big Pharma Dog
Source: Reuters, Caroline Copley  (7/3/12)
"Genentech's jeans-wearing scientists in San Francisco have proven they are the ones driving the drug pipeline of the 116-year-old Basel-based pharma giant." More >

Biotech Threats Disappear as Supreme Court Upholds Health Law
Source: Fierce Biotech, John Carroll, Tracy Staton and Mark Hollmer  (7/2/12)
"The healthcare bill included important provisions that the biotech industry had fought long and hard for. In particular, the cloud that hung over a provision allowing 12 years of marketing exclusivity for biologics, as well as the regulatory pathway for biosimilars, has now disappeared." More >

Hidden Small-Cap Medical Device Companies with Big Growth Potential
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (7/2/12)
I've been involved in healthcare as a clinician, writer or analyst for four decades, and every now and then a public company will come to light that went previously unnoticed or unknown by me. That was the case when I interviewed analyst Caroline Corner for The Life Sciences Report. Corner provided some small-cap medtech names of great interest that could ultimately be uncovered by small cap mutual and hedge funds. When they buy, share prices are lifted up. More >

Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Overhaul
Source: Russ Britt and Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch  (6/28/12)
"The ruling sent hospital stocks soaring by near-double-digit figures, with industry leader HCA Holdings Inc. jumping by 10%, along with Health Management Associates Inc. Medicaid insurers also jumped on the news, with WellCare Health Plans Inc. up more than 9%." More >

Abbreviated Approval Process for Biosimilars Survives in Supreme Court
Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News  (6/28/12)
"A divided U.S. Supreme Court let stand the streamlined process for finally bringing biosimilar drugs to market. The act mandated the creation of an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products shown to be biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed biological reference product." More >

GAIN Act Should Benefit Antibiotic Makers
Source: Seeking Alpha, Jason Napodano  (6/27/12)
"The bill was designed to accelerate reviews of novel drugs for infectious diseases, to mandate electronic NDA submissions and to improve communications between manufacturers and the FDA to prevent drug shortages." More >

Better Lucky than Good
Source: Severine Kirchner, Daily Reckoning  (6/26/12)
"Now think about it: If siRNA can essentially turn off genes by destroying them through a sort of sequence-detection, then what stops them from curing diseases? By knocking down the activity of one or several genes, RNAi could potentially block a plethora of diseases." More >

Drug Pipelines Improving
Source: Reuters, Ben Hirschler  (6/26/12)
"Drug industry productivity is finally improving after years of research disappointment, as drug makers shift their focus from mass markets to making medicines for rarer, undertreated diseases." More >

Speedier Drug Reviews Await Presidential OK
Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News  (6/25/12)
"If the president signs the bill into law, FDA will be committed to reviewing and acting on 90% of standard applications within 10–12 months from the date of filing and on 90% of priority submissions within six to eight months from date of filing." More >

BIO 2012: Immunotherapies Make a Comeback at Big Pharma
Source: Fierce Biotech, John Carroll  (6/25/12)
"Immunotherapies—for autoimmune diseases as well as oncology—are now one of the two top fields of interest for Joe McCracken, the global head of business development at Roche, who also sees a bright future in matching immunotherapies to particular patient populations." More >

A Huge Investment Opportunity in Drug-Making Technology
Source: Patrick Cox, The Penny Sleuth  (6/22/12)
"Nonmammalian, plant-based biomanufacturing also has a very big advantage in safety. Using a plant cell system is like having a biological firewall that protects against the transmission of infectious organisms to patients via the therapeutics." More >

The Price of Togetherness
Source: BioSpace, Karl Thiel   (6/22/12)
"The growing demand for drugs in emerging markets means that some of these collaboratively developed drugs may eventually reach much broader audiences, meaning larger populations over which to recoup development costs, bigger opportunities for rare disease indications and acceptable profits even if prices are forced lower." More >

Former Drug Developer Discovers Next-Generation Biotech Stocks
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (6/22/12)
Raghuram "Ram" Selvaraju, an analyst I recently interviewed for The Life Sciences Report, began his initial career in translational drug discovery at Serono in 2000 with early and remarkable success. As a young researcher he demonstrated real insight and ability when he discovered the first novel protein candidate ever developed entirely within the company. Fast forward to March 2012, and we find Selvaraju in the middle of another singular event, when he became the first analyst ever hired by Aegis Capital Corp. in the company's 26-year existence. In between these extraordinary life experiences, Selvaraju managed for get himself ranked as a #1 "Best on the Street" analyst in the Wall Street Journal in 2006 when he was at Rodman & Renshaw. More >

Medtech Execs Bullish on Industry Growth
Source: MedCity, Arundhati Permar   (6/21/12)
"Whatever concerns people have about the FDA, real and imagined, medtech executives are solidly bullish about the global prospects of the medical device and diagnostics industry." More >

BIO 2012: Implications of the 'Patent Cliff'
Source: Nuala Moran, BioWorld Today  (6/19/12)
"No doubt the patent cliff is reshaping the industry, but the good news is that the market for prescription drugs will grow by 3.1% per year between 2011 and 2018 to reach $885B, according to figures compiled from the forecasts of the leading industry analysts." More >

Costly Track-and-Trace Provision Dropped from Pending FDA Bill
Source: Associated Press, Matthew Perrone  (6/19/12)
"Pharmaceutical companies have gotten more aggressive in pushing for a national framework to avoid the costs of complying with individual state tracking laws. Industry groups said they would continue working toward a federal track-and-trace system." More >

You Should Give These 4 Antibiotic Picks a Shot
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (6/19/12)
Needham and Company Senior Biotechnology Analyst Alan Carr is known on Wall Street for his meticulous research in the realm of molecular medicine. Before joining the firm, Carr, who did his doctorate work in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, worked in the technology transfer group at Yale University. He successfully out-licensed a number of proposed drug candidates and technology platforms there. That kind of work requires a thorough knowledge of drug discovery, development, deal-making and valuation, which is what Carr brings to the table as a sellside analyst. Indeed, after settling in at Needham, he began publishing a series of Hitting the Target industry reports in 2007, one of the first being 5-HT Receptors, where he performed diligence on companies that were attempting to exploit the 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) pathway. Later he would publish his classic Antibiotics and the Ribosome installment, followed by an Antibody Drug Conjugates edition, as well his 72-page Acute Myeloid Leukemia report. There were others, and I loved them all. So, when I got on the phone to interview Alan for The Life Sciences Report story, Reap Biotech Profits from Overlooked Spaces, I was particularly anxious to hear some of his newer thoughts and ideas. More >

Immunotherapy Comes of Age at ASCO 2012
Source: Seeking Alpha, The Swiss Trader  (6/18/12)
"At the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in early June, there were over 300 abstracts relating to immunotherapy. The technology's advancement is evident by its growth." More >

Myriad Fires First Shot in Circuit Rematch over Gene Patenting
Source: Alex Philippidis, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News  (6/15/12)
"The first question remains open: What intellectual material is patentable? The second was partly answered by Justice Breyer in Mayo v. Prometheus: What has to be added to a law of nature to make it a patentable process?" More >

How to Find Small Companies with Big Prospects: Raghuram Selvaraju
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (6/14/12)
Raghuram "Ram" Selvaraju's professional career started at the Geneva-based biotech firm Serono in 2000, where he discovered the first novel protein candidate developed entirely within the company. He subsequently became the youngest recipient of the company's Inventorship Award for Exceptional Innovation and Creativity. Now an analyst with Aegis Capital Corp., Selvaraju is bringing biotech growth names to his firm's customers. In this exclusive interview with
The Life Sciences Report
Selvaraju shares stock ideas that could return significant gains to investors. More >

Tiny the Mouse Takes a Giant Step for Mankind
Source: Severine Kirchner, The Daily Reckoning  (6/14/12)
"Don't be fooled by this little mouse's name, because what Tiny represents in the world of regenerative medicine is anything but tiny." More >

Five Ways to Spot the Next Hot Biotech Stock
Source: Keith Fitz-Gerald, Money Morning  (6/13/12)
"For all their potential, biotech stocks remain among the most challenging for investors to identify, select and earn money on. However, with a little bit of guidance you can narrow your list to the stocks with the highest likely upside." More >

High Court to Hear Amgen's 'Fraud-on-the-Market' Case
Source: Mari Serebrov, BioWorld Today  (6/12/12)
"The biotech industry is hoping the Supreme Court will do what Congress hasn't been able to do—give companies a fighting chance against class-action shareholder lawsuits claiming 'fraud on the market.'" More >

Human Genome Returning 13% with Bet on Glaxo Sweetener
Source: Bloomberg, Tara Lachapelle  (6/12/12)
"Glaxo, which collaborates with Human Genome on three drugs, may raise its bid to $15 a share to overcome the company's poison pill." More >