| Vatican Endorsement Seals Neostem's Status as Leading Stem Cell Play M.E. Garza submits: Just as we have speculated in articles and trade alerts for the past few weeks, the Roman Catholic church appears to be getting ready to support Neostem's (AMEX:NBS) stem cell initiatives in a very big way and one can only imagine the types of new headlines this news may generate both on and off Wall Street. One of the biggest questions now is just how high NBS shares will run on news of the scientific support that would have made Galileo jealous. An easy double? Perhaps easily over $10 or $15, given the fact that the company should be easily trading at $6 per share now without the news? Analysts I spoke to Wednesday morning say it's too soon to tell since historic news like this isn't announced very often.NBS announced Wednesday morning that the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture announced a joint 5 year initiative between the companies and their charitable organizations to expand research and raise awareness of adult stem cell therapies. NeoStem’s Stem for Life Foundation, formed to create awareness about the promise of adult stem cells to treat disease, and the Pontifical Council’s Foundation, called STOQ International (Science Theology and the Ontological Quest), will work on a variety of collaborative activities with the goal of advancing scientific research on adult stem cells, exploring their clinical application in the field of regenerative medicine and the cultural relevance of such a fundamental shift in medical treatment options, particularly with regard to the impact on theological and ethical issues. As we understand it, this Vatican has endorsed NBS's method of extraction and storage of autologus (self-derived) adult stem cells as well as the growing number of NBS's proprietary treatments for these cells in the orthopedic, cardiovascular, and cosmetic areas.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
4 Biotech Clearance Rack Stocks Joseph Krueger submits: The recent market volatility has really beaten down some biotech stocks. With the S&P, Dow, NASDAQ, and Russell 2000 down close to 5%, with some wild swings, the selling had been vicious. It seems that biotech stocks have taken a disproportional beating over this same period, shedding their aggressive gains seen in the first few months of this year in a very short time. This global can be represented by the losses in more popular biotech ETFs over the same time frame: IShares NASDAQ Biotechnology (IBB) is down 11%, First Trust AMEX Biotechnology (FBT) is down 13% , and finally the Biotech HOLDRs (BBH) is down 15%. Apart from individual factors for each company, the market’s woes are what probably caused an unprecedented ASCO sell-off this year, with the most popular ASCO stocks shedding 20% or more within a few days. What does this all mean? In a broad sense, nothing. Stocks go up and down for a variety of reasons, and what we have witnessed recently seems to be a culmination of overbought technicals, market conditions, cyclical patterns, ASCO, and the general summer doldrums. “Sell in May and go away”, they say. Although apparently exacerbated by the market’s troubles, this selloff should not have been a huge surprise: Many biotech stocks rise in anticipation of some key clinical data presented at ASCO, and tend to fade away when investors lose their enthusiasm. In fact, overall biotech stocks tend to have a cyclical pattern, where there is thought to be an established cycle to biotech where biotech stocks tend to rally in the last 3 months of the year (ending January/Feburary of the following year) and sell of slowly after that. An interesting analysis of this cycle is described here.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Girls Reaching Puberty Earlier New research adds further evidence that girls are entering puberty at younger and younger ages, with implications for their physical and mental health. online.wsj.com |
Cord Blood America Says Placenta Collection Services Increasing Revenues in Third Quarter; July 2010 Top Month in Year; BioCells, Inc. Acquisition Proceeding to September Closing [PR Newswire] - Cord Blood America, Inc. , the umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation company focused on bringing the life saving potential of stem cells, a biological insurance policy, to families nationwide and internationally, said today that placenta collection services in the third quarter of 2010 for a well-respected, accredited, tissue bank have increased by 40 percent so far compared to the second quarter of 2010, to a total of more than $35,000 in revenues through July and August of 2010. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Ryan & Maniskas, LLP Announces Investigation of Clarient, Inc. [Business Wire] - Ryan & Maniskas, LLP is investigating potential claims against the board of directors of Clarient, Inc. concerning possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law related to the Company’s efforts to sell Clarient to GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company in a transaction with a value of approximately $580 million. us.rd.yahoo.com |