Divestments: A Fundamental Tool in Biotech Growth Strategies
Source: Jeff Greene, EY  (4/8/15)
"The life sciences industry is undergoing a tectonic shift due to regulatory changes and a growing focus on patient outcomes. In response, leading companies are using divestments as a fundamental tool in their growth strategy." More >

Why Biotech Investors Should Target the Takeouts: Cantor Fitzgerald's Irina Rivkind Koffler
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (4/2/15)
Taking a page out of Big Pharma's playbook—looking for likely takeout candidates—is a profitable way to approach small-cap biotechs as potential investments, especially since large caps with shrinking pipelines have an unquenchable hunger for good new drugs and technologies, and the resources to track those drugs and technologies down. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Irina Rivkind Koffler of Cantor Fitzgerald brings two companies with takeout potential to the table. More >

How Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Can Inhibit Cancer While Enhancing Investments: CEO Daniel Swisher
Source: Daniel Levy, The Life Sciences Report  (4/2/15)
Cancers are among today's most significant unmet medical needs. Take, for example, acute myelogenous leukemia: No new therapeutics have hit the marketplace in more than forty years. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Daniel N. Swisher Jr., president and CEO of Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc., describes how his company is making clinical progress toward developing a new treatment for this devastating disease, and how the broad Sunesis kinase inhibitor portfolio provides additional firepower against other cancers. With a number of share-moving catalysts on the horizon, Sunesis expects to hit the mark both for patients and investors. More >

Three Biotechs that Could Radically Change the Practice of Medicine Forever: Wasatch Analyst Jill Wahleithner
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/25/15)
Buyside analysts don't publish ratings and target prices for the public: Nearly all their notes, analyses and projections are top secret. However, in this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Wasatch Advisors' Jill Wahleithner breaks that tacit rule. Wahleithner, a former big pharma scientist, identifies three unusual biotechs with advanced therapeutic technology platforms that could turn the tide against conditions that have plagued humankind for eons, and the potential returns on investment matches the potential to completely and radically change the practice of medicine forever. More >

Why Your Last Investment Blew Up
Source: Karl Theil, BioPharm Executive  (3/24/15)
"There are tightly designed, highly predictive Phase 2 studies, and then there are Hail Mary studies aimed at moving into pivotal trials, fingers crossed, as quickly as possible. You can't tell where a given program may lie on the spectrum based on headlines. . ." More >

How ARM's Edward Lanphier Is Fighting for Cell Therapy Cures that Save Patients and Portfolios
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/19/15)
Stem cell, gene therapy and genetically modified cell therapy companies have begun to attract serious capital from investors who understand biotechnology and have the wherewithal to move products into the clinic and into the market. But battles still loom on the political and reimbursement front. Edward Lanphier, founder and CEO of Sangamo BioSciences Inc. and current chairman of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, sees near-term milestones on the horizon, as well as additional inflows of validating capital from prominent investors. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Lanphier describes upcoming milestones and share-moving catalysts, some of which will be revealed at ARM's Regen Med Investor Day. More >

Will Stem Cell Profits Measure Up?: NxR Biotechnologies' Alain Vertès
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/17/15)
It makes no sense to look at stem cell companies differently from drug or biologics companies. The technology may be different, but the diseases they seek to treat are the same. In fact, cell therapies may ultimately be more useful and more curative than drugs, and hence more valuable. That's the way Alain Vertès of NxR Biotechnologies sees it. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Vertès talks about some of the stem cell names he knows well, and draws comparisons investors can bank on. More >

Pharma Stock Outlook: Let's Make a Deal
Source: Zacks Investment Research  (3/17/15)
"AbbVie's $21B acquisition agreement with Pharmacyclics is one of the biggest deals to be announced in recent times. The deal goes to show that lofty valuations will not deter large companies from pursuing acquisitions to boost their pipelines and product portfolios." More >

Five Stocks Griffin Securities' Keith Markey Thinks Could Double or Triple
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/11/15)
For Keith Markey of Griffin Securities, the science is paramount. Without understanding the underlying basis for activity, safety and efficacy, there's just no betting on a biotech stock. Over the last 25 years Markey has seen nearly every type of biotech success and failure, and it has made him take a hard, discerning look at every new name that comes his way. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Markey brings investors five technologically advanced biotech stocks, each with the potential to double, triple or do even better. More >

What to Look for in Companies Navigating Drug Approval Processes on Both Sides of the Pond
Source: Jim Patrick of The Life Sciences Report  (3/5/15)
What moves biotech stocks the most? Is what moves them different in the U.S. than it is in Europe? According to the Small-Cap Biotech Watchlist, which The Life Sciences Report unveils at the Biotech Showcase each year, catalysts move stock prices. . .and some catalysts move stocks more than others. That is why, to create the Watchlist, we called on experts to look into their coverage universes for companies with expected announcements, and pick out the names with the most to gain. And everyone can follow along, all year, using the real-time Portfolio Tracker. More >

Profit Play from Massive Pharma M&A
Source: Kyle Anderson, Money Morning  (3/5/15)
Before today's AbbVie/Pharmacyclics deal, more than $35B had been spent on global healthcare mergers and acquisitions in 2015. That was up 124% from last year. Today's deal pushes that total over $57B. More >

How Alan Leong of BioWatch News Keeps Successful Biotech Investing Simple
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (3/4/15)
Biotechnology can be daunting to comprehend, but understanding is critical to successful investment. BioWatch News Founder Alan Leong has a nose for growth names, and his goal is to make their technology platforms clear to investors who might not be able to make sense of peer-reviewed scientific literature but want the big upside that science promises. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Leong brings seven micro-cap names with massive potential to investors' attention. More >

One Target with Multiple Shots on Goal: Can-Fite BioPharma CEO Pnina Fishman
  (3/4/15)
The target is a single receptor found only on abnormal cells—cancer cells and cells responsible for inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis. The weapon is a platform technology developed by Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. under the guidance of Scientific Founder and CEO Pnina Fishman and her team. The company is developing an arsenal of therapies approaching the final stages of clinical trials, and in this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Fishman describes the catalysts and candidates that make Can-Fite a strong bet for investors. More >

Want to Stay Out of Trouble, Pharma? Compliance, Disclosure Are Key: SEC Enforcer
Source: Carly Helfand, FiercePharma  (3/4/15)
"The Securities and Exchange Commission sees a few places where you might get yourselves into sticky situations. But there's an easy way to avoid trouble, and that's to beef up compliance and disclosure." More >

How to Beat the Herd Mentality: Highline's Michael Higgins
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (2/25/15)
Michael Higgins of Highline Research Advisors believes it is absolutely vital for a sellside biotech analyst to understand what's going on outside the sector, because no stock lives on an island. The most fabulous fundamentals in the world won't propel a stock against powerful global or industry-wide headwinds. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Higgins, an industry veteran, discusses his methods of finding winning plays in the biotech space, and selects three names that could spike the punch in your portfolio. More >

CEL-SCI Corp.'s Novel Immunotherapies Set Sights on Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders and Infectious Diseases
Source: Dan Levy of The Life Sciences Report  (2/19/15)
Control and manipulation of the immune system is the underlying basis behind vaccinations in the fight against dangerous infectious diseases, but using immunotherapies to treat cancers and autoimmune disorders has been limited. That paradigm is changing, and CEL-SCI Corp. is among the companies poised to bring immunotherapy into these disease spaces. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Geert Kersten, CEL-SCI's CEO, describes how his company's Multikine and L.E.A.P.S. platforms can be deployed, and how investors can turn an immunotherapeutic win into profit. More >

Immuno-Oncology Promises Continued Wealth and Health: LifeTech Capital's Stephen Dunn
Source: Staff of The Life Sciences Report  (2/19/15)
Immuno-oncology—disabling cancer's defenses so that a patient's own immune system can seek it out and destroy it—took center stage in the drug development world in 2014. Stephen Dunn of LifeTech Capital believes that preeminence will continue in 2015, bolstered by new drug approvals, new targets and new combination immunotherapies that increase potency. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Dunn outlines how companies large and small are leveraging these therapies, and where investors should look for opportunity in the sector. More >

Bloom Burton's David Martin Zeroes In on Under-the-Radar Biotech
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (2/12/15)
Biotechnology indices have been on a rapid ascent for three years, and 2015 appears to be off to the races as well. Bloom Burton & Co.'s David Martin has taken his seat in the grandstands, betting on specialty pharma and biotech companies based in Canada, where resource stocks have absorbed so much investment capital that many healthcare names have remained hidden and undervalued. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Martin highlights a group of companies with superior growth prospects and room to run. More >

Capture Growth with Baskets of Biotechs: LifeSci Advisors' Andrew McDonald
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (2/5/15)
Andrew McDonald believes investors fundamentally underestimate the risk of investing in companies with drugs in development. To address the inherent hazards, McDonald cofounded LifeSci Advisors, which created the BioShares Biotechnology Clinical Trials and BioShares Biotechnology Products exchange-traded funds to limit risk. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, McDonald describes how funds can be designed to grow on product sales and data generated via milestones in clinical development, and also names four companies he's included in the two portfolios. More >

Changing of the Guard at FDA: Is Califf the Next Commissioner?
Source: Damian Garde, FierceBiotech   (2/5/15)
"Under Margaret Hamburg's watch, the FDA instituted a slew of programs designed to speed up the review process for new drugs, and 2014 saw the agency approve a 20-year-record 51 novel therapies." More >

Buy on the Biotech Dip
Source: Greg Guenthner, The Daily Reckoning  (2/5/15)
"Biotechs are still on the rampage. Feeble market in January? Biotechs don't care. They just kept bulldozing forward. In fact, biotechs were some of the only stocks popping to start the year." More >

The Diabetes Economy: Miraculins Scouts for Worldwide Markets
Source: Taylor Thoen, BTV/The Life Sciences Report   (2/4/15)
While other diseases catch headlines and media attention, diabetes has crept quietly into a full-blown, worldwide pandemic. With the Scout DS^®, Winnipeg-based Miraculins Inc. is on the leading edge of medical innovation with the world's first noninvasive retail screening test for diabetes. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, Miraculins President and CEO Christopher Moreau explains how the company is poised to expand into multiple markets to meet a desperate need for diabetes screening in North America and around the world. More >

Watchlist Analysts Forecast Continued Blue Sky for Biotech Industry
Source: Tracy Salcedo-Chourré of The Life Sciences Report  (1/29/15)
For the last two years the biotech sector has experienced market-beating gains, even taking into account the industry-wide hiccup in early 2014. Can this trend continue? The five analysts who selected names for The Life Sciences Report's 2015 Small-Cap Biotech Watchlist spend their days considering this question; it comes into play with every recommendation they make. The topic came up in various contexts during the Watchlist panel at the 2015 Biotech Showcase: Here are four factors investors should consider as they move into 2015. More >

What Will Herald the End of the Biotech Boom?
Source: Karl Thiel, BioSpace.com  (1/28/15)
"The truth is, I don't think there's a coming crash for the biotech sector—at least not in the near-term. But reasonable arguments can be made that we're in for a big reversal, and one of the keys to successful investing is to consider the other side of a trade." More >

The Small-Cap Biotech Watchlist 2015 Unwrapped: Who Are These Guys? And Why Are They Here?
Source: Tracy Salcedo-Chourré of The Life Sciences Report  (1/27/15)
At the Biotech Showcase 2015 in San Francisco, five biotech analysts examined the burgeoning small-cap life sciences marketplace and found every reason to believe its good health would continue into 2015 and beyond. The experts also sent investors who attended the panel discussion of The Life Sciences Report's 2015 Small-Cap Biotech Watchlist home with a bundle of robust investment opportunities, including a few new names. Read on to see which companies made the list, and why. More >