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BioHealth Business Daily, Major News Breaks (QCOR, DNDN, GERN, STEM, ASTM, CYTX, NBS, BTIM, PSTI, SVA, VVUS, OREX, ARNA, SNTS, GENZ, SNY, TEVA, AMGN, ACOR, CELG, HGSI, BIIB, GILD, EXAS, ZGEN, DYAX, IDXX, VPHM)

Administrator — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:57:35 +0000

Biotech and BioHealth stocks are on the move today and there is more news in the emerging sector than there has been on a single day in months and months. The news is not even on any of the ten-bagger drug announcement tracking stocks that investors tend to fall in love with from time to time. We have individual news and moves seen in Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOR), Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN), Santarus Inc. (NASDAQ: SNTS) and Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SVA). There is a boatload of stem cell reactions to news today; obesity drug candidate companies are all not getting an up-market memo from the stock exchanges. We also have ongoing pending merger news and there were more drug and biotech research calls than you can easily count today.

Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOR) is down over 5.5% at $9.79 after the FDA said it needed more time to review its Supplemental New Drug Application for its Acthar decision for infantile spasms.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) is playing a 2% game of giveback today and shares are down at $40.99. There has been some steady hope of a deal here on and off coming down the pipe, but the Medicare review period over reimbursements (a possible price shakedown) is a steady thorn in the side of PROVENGE in the fight against prostate cancer.

Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SVA) is trading up 7.5% at $4.30 on above average volume. The company disclosed that there were THREE upcoming presentations:

Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Unplugged Conference, New York, scheduled for September 14 at 2:10 pm ET.
Morgan Stanley China Global Healthcare Day, Boston, September 15 in one-on-meetings with investors.
UBS Global Life Sciences Conference, New York, scheduled for Monday, September 20 at 10:00 AM ET.

Stem cells are back in vogue…. Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN), StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM), Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTM), Cytori Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CYTX), Neostem, Inc. (AMEX: NBS), BioTime, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTIM) and Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSTI) are all trading higher on word that US District Court has lifted that ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cells.

VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) is down 3.5% at $6.11 but it is on light trading volume. Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OREX) is down 3.4% at $5.14 on thin volume, and this is the one that Takeda got on the map for a potential $1 billion obesity pill pact announced in recent weeks. Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) is also down 4% at $7.13 on fairly active trading volume.

Santarus Inc. (NASDAQ: SNTS) is up after it secured a license for a Type II diabetes drug for the exclusive manufacturing and commercial rights to Cycloset in the U.S. with S2 Therapeutics and VeroScience. The company will pay an upfront $5 million fee and will then pay royalties to its partners from the Cycloset sales. Santarus shares are trading up over 14% at $2.54 on about 10-times normal trading volume.

Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ) is up today on hopes of a higher Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) bid, although this appears to be on a false rumor.

There was a massive push for drug and biotech research calls today. Stocks given new coverage, upgrades, and downgrades were Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA), Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR), Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI), Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), EXACT Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: EXAS), ZymoGenetics Inc. (NASDAQ: ZGEN), Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ: DYAX), IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDXX), and ViroPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: VPHM) all have major research calls with a FULL RESEARCH SUMMARY WITH INDIVIDUAL CALLS HERE.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Biotech, Drug companies, Pharmaceuticals, Trading Alert Tagged: ACOR, AMGN, ARNA, ASTM, BIIB, BTIM, CELG, CYTX, DNDN, DYAX, EXAS, GENZ, GERN, GILD, HGSI, IDXX, NBS, OREX, PSTI, QCOR, SNTS, SNY, STEM, SVA, TEVA, VPHM, VVUS, ZGEN

Early-Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (DKS, IDXX, MA, WIT, ACS, ADP, CHT, FMCN, NT, PTI, TSS)

247wallst — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:32:45 +0000

These are some of the upgrades and downgrades we are seeing from Wall Street this Tuesday morning:

Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
Mastercard (MA) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Wipro (WIT) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. (CHT) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Focus Media (FMCN) kept as Buy but Target cut to $59 from $80 at Citigroup.
Nortel (NT) Started as Sector Perform at CIBC.
Patni Computer Systems (PTI) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Total System Services (TSS) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
August 19, 2008

Cramer’s Diagnostics Pick, Pet Blood & Urine… Really (IDXX)

247wallst — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:20:04 +0000

On tonight’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer came out calling for a move toward being ultra-defensive in what he said is a bear market and fed-mandated recession (here’s our own 2008 defensive stocks with a value mix, although these aren’t all stocks you can just buy and hold) in a brutal market where you main goal has to be capital preservation. Cramer said this is a vicious overreaction to the downside on Intel in after-hours trading.

One sector that Cramer said is very defensive that can still work is a diagnostics company. One company that has no government reimbursement risk is in pet care and was up today. IDEXX Laboratories (NASDAQ:IDXX) is his pick. He thinks you should wait for a pullback and not buy it tomorrow, but it is a buy according to him. It also has coming catalysts as a replacement for its blood and urine testing and its sales seem stable. It has come down from highs and he thinks there could be some estimate bump ups on the stock. IDEXX Labs (IDXX) shares closed up 1.56% today at

Last night on MAD MONEY Cramer also came out and said he was evaluatingEMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) as his oversold and overlooked tech pick. Here was his 2007 active list that is still active for 2008 and still has relevance to his calls today.

Jon C. Ogg
January 15, 2008