| AIDS Budget Faces Reduction New York City's efforts to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS could shrink under the proposed cuts in the city budget, as the total number of new cases of the virus is down from four years ago. online.wsj.com |
George Scangos Named Biogen Idec’s CEO: Will Activist Shareholders Be Placated? Jason Chew submits: Geoge Scangos from Exelixis (EXEL) was officially named CEO of Biogen (BIIB), replacing James Mullen who retired June 8 under pressure from the board. He has biologics experience from Bayer and has been an R&D head. However, he is probably best known as a dealmaker. At Bayer he drove a large in-licensing deal, while his tenure at Exelixis has been marked by a proliferation of out-licensing agreements with large Pharmaceutical companies. He has also initiated multiple reorganization efforts at Exelixis. And while he heads a relatively small biotech, he is well known throughout the industry, sitting on the board of Anadys Pharmaceuticals and holding roles at major universities.Biogen is noted to have one of the best late stage pipelines of the large cap biotechs. Even so, the company has been in tumult since Carl Icahn pushed the company to put itself up for sale in 2007. The failed sale and poor performance from MS drug Tysabri eventually led to Mr. Mullen’s ouster. With only four marketed products, Biogen is heavily dependent on its MS franchise of Avonex and Tysabri, the two accounted for 73% of 2009 sales.Revenue growth has been anemic, primarily due to a slowdown in sales of Avonex. Converting patients to the next-generation PEGylated-Avonex will be a top priority once that drug is approved. While Mr. Scangos lacks experience in manufacturing and sales, he lead a company that at one time had close to a thousand employees and had operations on two continents. This should provide him some background in running a large corporation. With three quarters of its sales in MS and a late stage pipeline also geared toward that indication, Biogen intends to stay focused on MS, at the same time, it has diversified its pipeline with indications in neurology, oncology, and immunology. His scientific background and deep knowledge in oncology should be useful here.Biogen recently lost out in a bidding war for Facet Biotech to Abbott (ABT), which offered a bid 54% higher than that of Biogen. With this, Biogen lost full development rights to the promising MS drug, daclizumab, as well as an early stage oncology compound. Mr. Scangos’ expert deal making will likely come in handy when it comes time for Biogen to do its next deal. One can be certain the two parties will not be this far apart on their valuations. When Mr. Scangos spoke with analysts yesterday, he talked about bringing a sense of urgency to the company. Biogen needs that. Activist investors are pushing for results. The company needs to start growing its revenues faster- and no more high profile pipeline blowups. Mr. Scangos certainly has deep boardroom support: Carl Icahn is a major shareholder in Exelixis and de facto Biogen board member, Stelios Papadopoulos, chairs the board at Exelixis. This is a chance for Mr. Scangos to really make a name for himself.Disclosure: No PositionsComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Pfizer's Failure Provides Clarity for ArQule Ohad Hammer submits:Monday Pfizer (PFE) announced that Sutent failed to prolong survival of lung cancer patients when given in combination with Tarceva. The drug led to an increase in progression free survival (PFS), which was the secondary endpoint of the study. The results are not published and there are several open questions such as the extent of PFS improvement, benefit across different subtypes and use of Sutent in patients from the placebo cohort after progressing on Tarceva. Nevertheless, chances to see Sutent+Tarceva as a standard of care for 2nd/3rd line NSCLC are slim.Pfizer’s failure provided some clarity for Arqule (ARQL) and its partner Daiichi Sankyo (DSKYY.PK), who plan to initiate a phase III study for ARQ-197 in combination with Tarceva. The indication Arqule is pursuing is very similar to that pursued by Pfizer, so had the Sutent trial been successful, it would have adversely affected ARQ-197’s prospects in general and potentially the required clinical route.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Arena Pharmaceuticals’ Lorcaserin Is Down, But Not Necessarily Out By Larry Smith Yesterday, the FDA advisory committee voted 9 to 5 against approval of Arena Pharmaceuticals' (ARNA) Lorcaserin. I listened to the day long proceedings and also tuned in to the conference call with investors that the company held this morning. I have a number of takeaways.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
December Will Be Exciting for Up and Coming Corcept Pharmaceuticals Sheff Station submits:In December, the Phase 3 results for Corlux for the treatment of Cushing’s Syndrome are due out and investors have been showing an appetite for the stock as of late. This was evidenced by the unusual volume on Friday, which was a half-day for the equity markets. “Approximately 710,100 shares changed hands, a 970.6 percent increase over its 65-day average volume.” The analyst upgrades have been climbing since start of fall. In August, Global Securities initiated coverage on CORT with a buy rating and $5 price target. On Oct. 29th, Leerink Swann initiated coverage with an Outperform rating. On Nov. 17th, Piper Jaffray initiated coverage of CORT with an Overweight and a $7 target price.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |