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Weekend of Cancer Data at AACR Ahead of ASCO (ALTH, AMGN, ARIA, ARRY, AZN, BIIB, CELG, CRIS, IMMU, IMGN, INFI, MEDX, MNTA, ONCY, PFE, PCYC, SUPG, TELK, THLD)

247wallst — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:05:16 +0000

This weekend will be a potentially important oncology and cancer news weekend for drug and biotech stocks. The American Association for Cancer Research Meeting will actually have a 100th annual meeting, and some traders and investors may be using this as a preview for what lies ahead at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in a month. The following companies which are presenting data:

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH)
Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN)
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA)
Array BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARRY)
AstraZeneca’s (NYSE: AZN) Medimmune unit
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB)
Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG)
Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS)
Immunomedics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMMU)
ImmunoGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMGN)
Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: INFI)
Medarex, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDX)
Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MNTA)
Oncolytics Biotech, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY)
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)
Pharmacyclics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCYC)
SuperGen Inc. (NASDAQ:SUPG)
Telik, Inc. (Nasdaq: TELK)
Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: THLD)

You can see a full summary of the data being presented at BioHealthInvestor.com site. There will be others presenting data this weekend, and these were from the press releases of the meeting ahead of time.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Biotech, Calendar, Drug companies Tagged: ALTH, AMGN, ARIA, ARRY, AZN, BIIB, CELG, CRIS, IMGN, IMMU, INFI, MEDX, MNTA, ONCY, PCYC, PFE, SUPG, TELK, THLD

Carl Icahn Holdings Show No Immunity To Market (IEP, BIIB, AMLN, MOT, YHOO, WMB, APC, TWX, TWC, AMD, TELK, QRCP, LEA, TIN, JCP)

247wallst — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:16:13 +0000

Billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn has made some large changes to his portfolio holdings. He and Icahn Capital, L.P. have not been immune to the market sell-off as you have seen in his Icahn Enterprises, L.P. (NYSE: IEP) share performance. Here we have commented on some of his larger stakes and larger changes or exits in positions.

Stock Tickers noted as IEP, BIIB, AMLN, MOT, YHOO, WMB, APC, TWX, TWC, AMD, TELK, QRCP, LEA, TIN, and JCP.

His largest position in biotech is Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) where Icahn Capital owns 12.8 million shares worth about $612 million. With all the calls for mergers in biotechs and speculation rampant that this one could be bought, this is no surprise. But Icahn is betting on more than just the MS treatment TYSABRI here. Also worth noting is his almost-$124 million stake of 11.42+ million shares of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN), which some have also hoped could get past its troubles and get acquired.

Icahn has two huge disappointments in technology. His 119+ million share stake in Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) was listed as being worth $530.672 million. At current market prices, that would be worth about $460 million. And he is in much much higher than the year-end price and today’s price. This appears lower because Motorola listed him as holding 144.1 million shares before this. The other thorn is the Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) stake listed as 60.45+ million shares worth some $737.5 million at the 12/31 filing. The good news is that would be worth around $777 million today. But Icahn has been buried by this. He is very long and very wrong so far, and he probably wished he never thought he could force Jerry Yang into a moment of intelligence.

In energy is where this also gets interesting. Icahn really juiced up his position in Williams Cos. Inc. (NYSE: WMB) where his 17.475 million shares were listed as being worth over $253 million. That was a large increase. His other big holding is Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC), with over 7.6 million shares being listed as worth more than $293 million.

Icahn Capital is out of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) and also holds no Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC). He had greatly pared down his stake there already, but that is now history. Jeff Bewkes has to answer one less unpleasant telephone call. Others he has dropped entirely are Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), Telik (NASDAQ: TELK), Quest Resources (NASDAQ: QRCP), Lear Corp. (NYSE: LEA), Temple-Inland (NYSE: TIN), and J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP).

Again, these are not the only position he listed. The list would be double the size if you included his positions worth a few million. But as you can tell, billionaires and activists can have deep pockets yet no immunity from the market. Icahn Enterprises, L.P. (NYSE: IEP) trades at $34.78, and its 52-week trading range is $19.95 to $111.53.

Jon C. Ogg
Febbruary 14, 2009

Posted in Activist Investor, Insider Activity, Value Investing Tagged: AMD, AMLN, APC, BIIB, Carl Icahn, IEP, JCP, LEA, MOT, QRCP, TELK, TIN, TWC, TWX, WMB, YHOO

The 52-Week Low Club 8/21/2008 (PLD)(CTIC)(TELK)(SPC)

247wallst — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:51:51 +0000

Spectrum Brands (SPC) No big news. Still falling after posting loss. Down to $1.67 from 52-week high of $6.20.

Prologis (PLD) Company recently increased presence in Mexico, but no other news. Drifts off to $42.50 from 52-week high of $73.35.

Cell Therapeutics (CTIC) Moving down several days after poor quarter. Hits bottom at $.25 off from 52-week high of $4.

Telik (TELK) No news, just dead air. Sells off to $.64 from 52-week high of $4.96.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Can Carl Icahn Fix Broken Biotechs? (ANX, BIIB, ENZN, IMCL, TELK, FOLD, AMLN, REGN)

247wallst — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:43:33 +0000

Carl Icahn is a billionaire financier, activist, and investor. Most think of Icahn as an activist investor that wants to get inside and drive value without having to acquire the whole company to resell it later. This strategy works and works well, so long as the right strategies and efforts are applied properly to each stock. The underlying sector a company is in is critical too, and for some reason Carl Icahn has been trying to do this in biotech stocks. We took the biotech filings from both Mr. Icahn’s own holdings and from Icahn Capital LP to see what Mr. Icahn thinks he has up his sleeves.

CARL ICAHN direct holdings, via several investment vehicles:

Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX: ANX) down 80% from highs

$467,000.00 for 864,865 shares

Biogen-Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) down about 25% from highs

$153.4M for 2,487,181 shares

Enzon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ENZN) down only 16% from highs

$5.6M for 614,420 shares

ImClone Systems (NASDAQ: IMCL) down 18% from highs

$494.9M for 11,669,544 shares

Telik Inc. (NASDAQ: TELK) down over 50% from highs

$2.536M for 1,039,165 shares

ICAHN CAPITAL LP direct holdings:

Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX: ANX) down 80% from highs

$1.8M for 3,459,459 shares

Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) down 45% from highs

$2.16M for 201,940 shares

Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMLN) down 40% from highs

$185.1M for 6,339,653 shares

APPLERA (NYSE: ABI) down 10% from highs

$21.3M for 649,026 shares

Biogen-Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) down about 25% from highs

$613.7M for 9,948,723 shares

Enzon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ENZN) down only 16% from highs

$22.6M for 2,457,683 shares

Regenron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) down about 28% from highs

$48.1M for 2,508,001 shares

Telik Inc. (NASDAQ: TELK) down over 50% from highs

$10.1M for 4,156,663 shares

*** percentage down from highs means the 52-week highs, so many are off much more than all-time or historical highs.

It may not be fair to refer to all of these as broken, because many aren’t. What is interesting here is that if you follow biotech stocks and if you know these companies, most of these have fallen from their former glory.

Here is the problem with biotech stocks: They almost HAVE to be public to live up to expectations, so they very rarely go private because of the need for capital. The mere nature of putting molecules and modified products into your body has risks, and many companies cannot control what happens or how people their meds after a while. Biotech companies cannot control the FDA and they cannot control independent verification or investigative studies. No company can control whether or not a competitor comes out with a greater product. Biotechs are different in that investors would rather see a biotech spend cash to acquire another biotech rather than engage in a share buyback or pay out a dividend. When was the last time you heard a broker or an investor discuss the high dividend check they expect from their biotech? Me neither…

Mr. Icahn has a great track record of influencing companies. He made a fortune off the move in Time Warner. Motorola has so far been a flop and Yahoo! is just getting started. But he didn’t become a billionaire by throwing darts nor by investing in mutual funds.

But there is a real discourse here from biotechs to other sectors, and it would just seem much easier for Mr. Icahn to get better returns elsewhere. It might be easier backing high-risk and high-reward biotech ventures from scratch instead of trying to fix existing biotechs with problems.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about activist investing, special financings, M&A, IPO’s, secondary offerings, and other special situations.

Jon C. Ogg
May 16, 2008

Telik Surges on Trial Hold Release (TELK)

247wallst — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:34:48 +0000

Telik, Inc. (NASDAQ:TELK) is seeing shares surging pre-market after it announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has removed the partial hold on TELCYTA clinical trials after a complete review of TELCYTA data by the agency and permits the resumption of TELCYTA clinical development.

This is Telik’s most advanced development program, a tumor-activated small molecule product candidate in clinical development for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer and non- small cell lung cancer. Its other development candidate that is considered an advanced candidate is TELINTRA in clinical development for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome.

As of Friday’s close at $3.46, Telik had a $181.8 million market capitalization. Shares are up over 15% pre-market at $4.05. The 52-week trading range is $2.55 to $20.36, so you can see the reason for the large push pre-market. It trades an average of about 370,000 shares in any given day, but as of the end of September its short interest was more than 9.4 million shares. This sounds like there will be lots of short covering this morning.

Jon C. Ogg
October 15, 2007

Pre-Market Analyst Calls (June 5, 2007)

247wallst — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 06:37:56 +0000

AAP raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
ALDN cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
ALY started as Outperform at Wachovia.
BEBE cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
BEN cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
BHP raised to Buy at Citigroup.
CPO started as Buy at BB&T.
CRZO started as Buy at Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey.
FIF raised to Outperform at Piper Jaffray.
HAS cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
JNPR cut to Neutral at UBS.
OCNF started as Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald.
OHI started as Neutral at UBS.
OPWV cut to Underweight at JPMorgan; cut to Underperform at CIBC.
ORBC started as Mkt Perform at Piper Jaffray.
REG started as Neutral at Baird.
SFLY started as Strong Buy at JMP Securities.
SWIR raised to Outperform at CIBC.
SLR raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
TELK cut to Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
TRMP cut to Underperform at Bear Stearns.
WRI started as Outperform at Baird.
XEC cut to Neutral at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
June 5, 2007

Biotechs & Pharmas Bracing For ASCO Annual Meeting

247wallst — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:30:12 +0000

This weekend we have the mother of all future cancer treatment conferences: ASCO, or The American Society of Clinical Oncology. Cancer stocks in the last few weeks have been seeing a muted response ahead of the event that biotech investors have traditionally braced for. At various points on the website you can find a full list of contributing and presenting companies. This is only a sample of the companies presenting data and it is very possible that the dates and even the companies may have changed. Also, you’ll probably start seeing news here at this ASCO News Site either late Thursday evening or Friday. Some of these dates and presentation schedules have been compiled over a multi-week period, so it is very likely that some of these will have changed.

SATURDAY, JUNE 2

Genentech (DNA) will show data with Roche on Avastin plus a chemotherapy dual-mix cocktail for first line treatment in non-small cell lung cancer patients. Later on at ASCO, a failed Avastin study for the treatment of pancreatic cancer will be shown. Some Phase III Avastin data in kidney cancer will also be presented next week. Genentech will also be showing data with partners OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP) and Imclone (IMCL) in later days.

Pfizer (PFE) will present data on Sutent’s safety and efficacy in Phase II liver cancer studies.

If you forgot about Dendreon (DNDN), this will be the company’s last known data presentation on Provenge after getting the FDA delay. Investors will be looking closely at any ‘New Data’ presented because much of the ongoing study data is being treated as old data.

Arqule (ARQL) and Exelixis (EXEL) are presenting data as well on molecules that are deemed cancer targets

Others to watch are Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) and partner Bayer (BAY), because their liver cancer studies are under concern over toxicity. Its Nexavar data will be presented later for liver cancer Phase III.

Amgen (AMGN) will have study posters up discussing safety of its anemia treatment Aranesp that many patients have to use. It is no secret that the reimbursement rates, effectiveness and safety, and the dosage have been under fire and worse for some time now. Most of the damage has been done and many feel that more cautionary and worrisome days are ahead.

Immunogen (IMGN) will be releasing some preliminary data on Herceptin-DM1 in its Genentech pact for the treatment of breast cancer.

SUNDAY, JUNE 3

Telik (TELK) will post some data in the studies of Tecyta in overian cancer, which failed to meet endpoints.

Celgene (CELG) will be presenting data on a Revlimid-plus study in multiple myeloma patients.

Regeneron (REGN) will show Phase II data on VEGF-TRAP for advancedtreatment-resistant ovarian cancer and another phase II study innon-small cell lung cancer.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) will present preliminary Phase III datadesigned to be a fight against advanced and chemo-refractory metastaticbreast cancer.

GlaxoSmithkline (GSK) will also present Phase III Tykerb studies for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) will present data on targeting pathways to kill tumor cells.

NEXT WEEK

GPC Biotech (GPCB) will post some new data in its Phase III prostate cancer studies.

Imclone (IMCL) will release details of a failed study of Erbitux for pancreatic cancer.

Merck (MRK) will discuss future molecular targets for pediatric cancer.

Pfizer (PFE) will be posting further Phase II data on monoclonal antibodies for the possible treatment of melanoma.

Medarex (MEDX) will post Phase II data on melanoma studies.

Introgen (INGN) will post Advexin data for the marking of head and neck cancers.

deCODE Genetics (DCGN) will present on the ethical and financial needs in cancer genetics.

A sample of other stocks to watch in the sector are Cytogen (CYTO),Monogram Bio (MGRM), Telik (TELK), Threshold Pharmaceuticals (THLD),NeoPharm (NEOL), and Invitrogen (IVGN). There are many many morecompanies that will be presenting. Last year when we were in theprocess of rolling up our companies into one, I did a very full list of companies and the subsequent presentations.Here you can see that to see a much wider list of companies becausethese companies become "ASCO-ADDICTS" and most go back year after year.

Jon C. Ogg
May 30, 2007