| Vivus: Is the Ship Sinking? KLLJ Investments submits: Ask any of the major analysts on the buy-side of Vivus (VVUS,) and you will hear that Qnexa is the next mega-blockbuster. Its 37lb’s of weight loss is so impressive, it is sure to be a multi-billion dollar drug. Wall Street has driven up the price from a 52-week low of $4.18 all the way up to a recent high of $13.68. Even $13.68 is cheap if you are talking about a mega-blockbuster! In my blog entry regarding who will be the First Line Therapy for Obesity, I discussed many of the reasons why Qnexa won’t be that drug and why.It seems that the Vivus insider who should have the most confidence on the success of Qnexa agrees with me. VVUS filed today yet another Form 4 for Leland Wilson, this time selling another 50,000 shares at a pre-determined price of $13. Basically, Leland had decided that $13 was a very fair price for VVUS, generous even perhaps, so he filed a 105b-1 that said when VVUS hits $13, I’ll sell 50,000 shares. This follows major selling of VVUS by the CEO in 2009, before and after Phase III results for Qnexa came out. These include the following transactions.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
U.S. Stocks Close Near Worst Levels (at Investor's Business Daily) Stocks staged an intraday, downside reversal Wednesday and closed near session lows. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Synta Is Heating Up Ohad Hammer submits:Synta (SNTA) is recuperating nicely from last year’s meltdown following the failure of its melanoma drug, elesclomol. The company is gaining momentum thanks to its early stage Hsp90 (heat shock protein 90) inhibitor, STA-9090. STA-9090 seems to garner a lot of attention in the medical community following the presentation of encouraging phase I data at ASCO last June. Based on the preliminary results, STA-9090 could be what the industry has been waiting for: An broad and potent Hsp90 with an acceptable safety profile.Hsp90 is considered a promising target due to its ability to fold and stabilize many cancer related proteins. Cancer cells are often driven by mutated proteins or production of large amounts of normal proteins, both require the chaperone functions of Hsp90. Healthy cells are considered less in need of Hsp90, as they do not contain the amount of misfolded proteins. Because Hsp90 is required for the proper function of so many oncogenes, inhibiting its function should have a broad systemic effect on cancer cells, which usually rely on more than one pathway.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Treating Heart Patients With Thin Air Heart-failure researchers are testing a provocative hypothesis: whether a technique used by elite athletes to improve endurance can help some of medicine's sickest patients improve their ability to function in their daily lives. online.wsj.com |
Amylin, Alkermes Hit Hard on Surprise Bydureon Rejection Other GLP-1s Coming Up Fast About the only good news for Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. Wednesday was that investors were unlikely to pay mind to the fact that third-quarter sales of diabetes drug Byetta (exenatide) missed analyst expectations, as shares of the San Diego-based biotech were hammered on a complete response letter and the prospect of a two-year delay for its once-weekly version of the GLP-1 agonist.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |