As Cancer Immunotherapy Turns 125, WBB Securities' Steve Brozak Ponders What Investors Can Expect from Biotech Next
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (5/27/15)
Steve Brozak sees a bubble getting larger, and he is anticipating the time when biotech stocks pull back to take a breather, like all high-flying markets ultimately do. While investors may own innovative companies with highly disruptive technologies, Brozak insists on careful diligence to find names with the potential for explosive growth and avoid the disappearing acts. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Brozak, president and managing partner at WBB Securities, showcases six names with strong immunotherapeutic platforms that he believes have extraordinary potential to reward investors many times over. More >

ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Brandishes a New Weapon in Biotech's Antiviral Wars
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (5/27/15)
Nobody understands the ins and outs of the antivirals better than the CEO of ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, and James Sapirstein unfolds the backstory behind the creation of his newest venture in this interview with The Life Sciences Report. Millions of patients around the globe await the unveiling of the company's emerging pipeline products targeting the viruses that cause shingles and hepatitis B—products that also promise opportunity to biotech investors. More >

Exceptional Management and Disruptive Products Top the Investment Checklist for Vista Partners' Ross Silver
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (5/20/15)
Investing in micro- and small-cap biotech companies carries great risk, but for investors who take the time to dig out the value proposition, the upside can be phenomenal. Enter Ross Silver of Vista Partners, who publishes research and owns many of the stocks he writes about. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Silver puts two biotech names on the table for investors to consider. More >

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Tackles Neurodegenerative Disease with Super Cells
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (5/20/15)
An Israeli biotech is hard at work on a new treatment for neurodegenerative disease that holds promise in a variety of devastating diseases and enjoys fast-track and orphan drug status in its lead indication, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Tony Fiorino, the U.S.-based CEO of BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc., tells The Life Sciences Report how his company is winning over American investors with a revolutionary, university lab-backed cell therapy. More >

A Bull Run Hiccup: 2015 Small-Cap Biotech Watchlist Update
Source: Staff of The Life Sciences Report  (5/13/15)
It's been four months since The Life Sciences Report's 2015 Small-Cap Biotech Watchlist was announced at the Biotech Showcase in San Francisco. The year is off to a bumpy start, though the rough ride is not predicated, necessarily, on individual company performance. Read on for highlights of the Watchlist's Q1/15 performance. More >

Fire Up the Immune System to Fight Cancers and Boost Portfolios: John McCamant
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (5/12/15)
An immunotherapy revolution is rocking biotechnology, and investors are searching for just the right way to play the new trend. Do you go with an unknown company where the upside could be unparalleled? Do you go with an older name that has established partnerships with major pharmas? John McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter, has performed some serious diligence, and tells The Life Sciences Report about a handful of names with a range of market caps and the potential to achieve significant investment upside. More >

Dipexium Pairs the African Clawed Frog and Business Savvy for an Antibiotic Wound Care Solution
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (5/7/15)
David Luci, CEO of Dipexium Pharmaceuticals Inc., tells The Life Sciences Report why he believes his firm's new skin-healing product may soon dominate a broad international market niche. Investors take note: Not only is the company's product promising, its top management also spearheaded a successful initial public offering—a combo that could prove a potent addition to a biotech portfolio. More >

The Barbell Approach Builds Powerful Healthcare Stocks: StoneCastle's Bruce Campbell
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (5/6/15)
Portfolio manager Bruce Campbell wants the best of both worlds in his Canadian healthcare investments. He looks for companies that are strong and balanced, with muscular organic growth on one side and healthy acquisitions on the other. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, the founder and president of Canada-based StoneCastle Investment Management spotlights six names that have proven themselves with good runs but have potential for much bigger gains. More >

Alabama Institute of Medicine's Tory Williams Unites Patient Advocacy with Stem Cell Funding in the Deep South
Source: Gail Dutton of The Life Sciences Report  (4/29/15)
Stem cell research is controversial, little understood by both the public and the legislators who set the framework governing it. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Tory Williams of the Alabama Institute of Medicine describes how her patient advocacy group is working with research institutes to advance stem cell science and provide the early-stage funding and contacts that researchers and young companies need to grow and prosper. More >

Parsing Biotech's B-Word: Why Growing Bubble Fear May Be Your Opportunity
Source: Karl Thiel, BioSpace.com  (4/29/15)
Drug discovery and development has gotten harder and more expensive, but the advances and technologies that whipped the market into a frenzy 15 years ago finally appear to be bearing fruit. More >

How to Grow a Regenerative Medicine Industry in Canada: Michael May of CCRM
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (4/23/15)
There's a new kind of incubator in town. The Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) is a Canadian nonprofit that fosters hands-on association between academia, government, industry and investors to grow stem cell and regenerative medicine companies from the ground up. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, CCRM President and CEO Michael May guides us through the process that brings ideas out of academia and adds the essential nurturing elements to get startups off the ground and into commercial development. Along the way, he mentions a few names that may interest investors. More >

Celator's New Drug Combo Will Revolutionize AML Standard of Care: Scott Jackson and Lawrence Mayer
Source: Peter Byrne of The Life Sciences Report  (4/22/15)
Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s remarkable drug combination strategy has produced a cancer-fighting duo endowed with a coveted fast-track designation. Scott Jackson, the company's CEO, and Lawrence Mayer, president, chief scientific officer and founder, tell The Life Sciences Report about what sets Celator apart, and reveal profit-generating milestones that investors should keep on their scopes. More >

Ebola Vaccine Leaps Phase 1 Hurdle
Source: Stephen Petranek, The Daily Reckoning  (4/22/15)
"The Canadian National Microbiological Laboratory's new vaccine is licensed to NewLink Genetics, which in turn has licensed it to Merck. In two Phase 1 studies, the vaccine produced antibodies in volunteer subjects." More >

How to Profit from Australia's Healthiest Biotechs: Wilson HTM's Shane Storey
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (4/16/15)
Australia will always be known as a trove of natural resources, but its most precious treasure is the abundance of entrepreneurs who are all too happy to develop the country's intellectual assets. Shane Storey, head of research at Australia-based Wilson HTM Investment Group, observes that as the market value of resource commodities declines, investors are diverting investment capital to healthcare stocks, especially in the medical technology sector. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Storey presents three names that don't come close to their long-term fair valuation potential. The upside, he believes, could be quite dramatic. More >

Biotech Winners Outnumber Losers in Q1/15
Source: EPVantage  (4/10/15)
"M&A continues to define this peer group, making inexpensive biotech assets as rare as hen's teeth." More >

Why Investors Shouldn't Worry About Explosive New Drug Pricing: Maxim's Jason Kolbert
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (4/8/15)
It's the daring Phase 2-stage molecules of today that will bring patients a generation of biotech drugs that could cure certain deadly diseases tomorrow. The candidates that succeed will also energize the portfolios of investors who have exercised patience. Jason Kolbert of New York City-based Maxim Group relishes finding early-stage, cutting-edge, small-cap names that he believes will change the paradigm of medical practice. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Kolbert shares a list of favorite biotechs developing products that will command premium pricing and sustained performance in the marketplace. More >

Arno Therapeutics Seeks to Inhibit Cancer and Enhance Portfolios: CEO Alexander Zukiwski
Source: Daniel Levy, The Life Sciences Report  (4/8/15)
Cancers are generally treated by destruction of cancer cells. Infectious diseases are generally treated by destruction of invading pathogens. If infected host cells are viewed as viable biological targets, new paradigms for development of anti-infective agents become apparent. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Alexander Zukiwski MD, CEO and CMO of Arno Therapeutics Inc., describes how onapristone and AR-42 for cancers, and AR-12 as an anti-infective agent, are positioned to move through clinical trials and boost investors' portfolios. More >

Soligenix Takes the Fast Track to Beat Inflammation, Cancer and Bio-Threats: Dr. Christopher Schaber
Source: Daniel Levy, The Life Sciences Report  (4/8/15)
Orphan diseases associated with inflammation present excellent development opportunities for small biopharmaceutical companies and their investors. Additionally, inflammatory conditions can result from treatment with cancer therapeutics. The crossover between inflammation and oncology, coupled with vaccine programs of high strategic value, have allowed Soligenix Inc. to build a significant pipeline with substantial revenue potential. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Dr. Christopher J. Schaber, company President and CEO, outlines development programs targeting pediatric Crohn's disease, GI acute radiation syndrome, a rare lymphoma and the threat of ricin. More >

Divestments: A Fundamental Tool in Biotech Growth Strategies
Source: Jeff Greene, EY  (4/8/15)
"The life sciences industry is undergoing a tectonic shift due to regulatory changes and a growing focus on patient outcomes. In response, leading companies are using divestments as a fundamental tool in their growth strategy." More >

Why Biotech Investors Should Target the Takeouts: Cantor Fitzgerald's Irina Rivkind Koffler
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (4/2/15)
Taking a page out of Big Pharma's playbook—looking for likely takeout candidates—is a profitable way to approach small-cap biotechs as potential investments, especially since large caps with shrinking pipelines have an unquenchable hunger for good new drugs and technologies, and the resources to track those drugs and technologies down. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Irina Rivkind Koffler of Cantor Fitzgerald brings two companies with takeout potential to the table. More >

How Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Can Inhibit Cancer While Enhancing Investments: CEO Daniel Swisher
Source: Daniel Levy, The Life Sciences Report  (4/2/15)
Cancers are among today's most significant unmet medical needs. Take, for example, acute myelogenous leukemia: No new therapeutics have hit the marketplace in more than forty years. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Daniel N. Swisher Jr., president and CEO of Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc., describes how his company is making clinical progress toward developing a new treatment for this devastating disease, and how the broad Sunesis kinase inhibitor portfolio provides additional firepower against other cancers. With a number of share-moving catalysts on the horizon, Sunesis expects to hit the mark both for patients and investors. More >

Three Biotechs that Could Radically Change the Practice of Medicine Forever: Wasatch Analyst Jill Wahleithner
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/25/15)
Buyside analysts don't publish ratings and target prices for the public: Nearly all their notes, analyses and projections are top secret. However, in this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Wasatch Advisors' Jill Wahleithner breaks that tacit rule. Wahleithner, a former big pharma scientist, identifies three unusual biotechs with advanced therapeutic technology platforms that could turn the tide against conditions that have plagued humankind for eons, and the potential returns on investment matches the potential to completely and radically change the practice of medicine forever. More >

Why Your Last Investment Blew Up
Source: Karl Theil, BioPharm Executive  (3/24/15)
"There are tightly designed, highly predictive Phase 2 studies, and then there are Hail Mary studies aimed at moving into pivotal trials, fingers crossed, as quickly as possible. You can't tell where a given program may lie on the spectrum based on headlines. . ." More >

How ARM's Edward Lanphier Is Fighting for Cell Therapy Cures that Save Patients and Portfolios
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/19/15)
Stem cell, gene therapy and genetically modified cell therapy companies have begun to attract serious capital from investors who understand biotechnology and have the wherewithal to move products into the clinic and into the market. But battles still loom on the political and reimbursement front. Edward Lanphier, founder and CEO of Sangamo BioSciences Inc. and current chairman of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, sees near-term milestones on the horizon, as well as additional inflows of validating capital from prominent investors. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Lanphier describes upcoming milestones and share-moving catalysts, some of which will be revealed at ARM's Regen Med Investor Day. More >

Will Stem Cell Profits Measure Up?: NxR Biotechnologies' Alain Vertès
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/17/15)
It makes no sense to look at stem cell companies differently from drug or biologics companies. The technology may be different, but the diseases they seek to treat are the same. In fact, cell therapies may ultimately be more useful and more curative than drugs, and hence more valuable. That's the way Alain Vertès of NxR Biotechnologies sees it. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Vertès talks about some of the stem cell names he knows well, and draws comparisons investors can bank on. More >