Collectively, 'Rare' Disease Variants Are Pretty Common
Source: Anette Breindl, BioWorld  (5/22/12)
"The fact that variants are rare does not mean they are not useful for drug discovery. Cholesterol-lowering statins, for example, were identified because of rare variants that lead to extremely low cholesterol levels in their carriers." More >

Health System Builds Telehealth Network; Sees Great Return on Investment
Source: Healthcare Finance News, Erin McCann  (5/22/12)
"Polycom, a video conference and communications company, is helping Saint Vincent Health System build a telehealth network by visually connecting healthcare professionals and patients in virtual environments across 26 facilities in Pennsylvania." More >

Prostate-Cancer Screening Isn't Worth Risks, US Panel Says
Source: Bloomberg, Alex Nussbaum  (5/22/12)
"The 16-doctor panel urged against screening for men of all ages. The report cited the slow growth of most prostate tumors as well as false positive rates that may be as high as 80%." More >

Prostate Cancer Screening Isn't Worth Risks, US Panel Says
Source: Bloomberg, Alex Nussbaum  (5/22/12)
"The 16-doctor panel urged against screening for men of all ages. The report cited the slow growth of most prostate tumors as well as false positive rates that may be as high as 80%." More >

World's First Stem-Cell Drug Approved
Source: Medical News Today  (5/21/12)
"The decision is historic as it's both the first stem-cell drug going into formal use, as well as the first treatment for graft-versus-host disease, a devastating breakdown occurring after a bone marrow transplant that kills around 80% of children affected." More >

Five Companies in the Casey Portfolio Worth Watching: Alex Daley
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (5/17/12)
Biotech and medtech expose investors to rapid growth in healthcare innovation. In this exclusive interview with The Life Sciences Report, Chief Investment Strategist Alex Daley of Casey's Extraordinary Technology matches science to unmet needs to bring big ideas and big returns to investors. More >

Buyout Options Gaining a Foothold
Source: Alex Philippidis, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News  (5/17/12)
"Deals involving buyout rights have two features that make them attractive to smaller partners: up-front payments and a longer-term path to liquidity for their investors." More >

Biotech Stock ETFs: How to Ride the Surge in Mergers & Acquisitions
Source: Don Miller, Money Morning  (5/16/12)
"Investing in biotech stocks requires not only an understanding of the company's finances, but also knowledge of the company's potential based on its products and technologies. You can reduce some of the guesswork by using exchange-traded funds, which give you exposure without betting the farm on a single company." More >

Stakeholders Share Data to Design Better Trials for Neurodegenerative Diseases
Source: Patricia F. Dimond, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News   (5/15/12)
"The Coalition Against Major Diseases is an industrial consortia of companies willing to share precompetitive knowledge and work in support of projects identified as high priority by the FDA and in the interest of public health." More >

FDA Panel Recommends Approval of Quad Regimen
Source: Catherine Shaffer, BioWorld  (5/14/12)
"The FDA's Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee agreed with the efficacy outcome, and there was little discussion or debate on the efficacy of Quad." More >

FDA Panel Wants Higher Bar for Medical Devices Aimed at Curbing Obesity
Source: Mass Device, Ingrid Mezo  (5/14/12)
"High-risk medical devices intended to help obese patients lose weight should result in more weight loss than lower-risk methods, an FDA advisory panel said last week." More >

Venture Capital Is Not Dead. . .Just Resting!
Source: MD+DI, Brian Buntz  (5/14/12)
"Summarizing her thoughts on the venture capital model, venture capitalist Lisa Suennen jokingly quoted Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch: 'It is not dead. . .it is just resting!'" More >

UMass to Break Ground on Biotech Testing Facility
Source: Herald News, Grant Welker  (5/13/12)
"The facility allows start-up companies to conduct research, test and scale up their products, or partner with other startups. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth says it will eliminate a common barrier for entering the life science industry." More >

Expression Profiles Accurately Predict Breast Cancer Response to Chemotherapy
Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News  (5/11/12)
"Scientists have identified two gene-expression profiles that can predict how well breast tumors respond to specific types of chemotherapy, independent of standard variables such as age, tumor grade and estrogen receptor status." More >

Will Mayo v. Prometheus Fire Up Pharma?: Kevin DeGeeter
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (5/10/12)
Newly discovered biomarkers could provide physicians with information that will aid in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The big question for investors is whether, in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling Mayo Collaborative Services Inc. v. Prometheus Laboratories, companies will be able to profit from that innovation. In this exclusive interview with
The Life Sciences Report, Kevin DeGeeter, senior analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., shares the names of a select group of companies with good prospects, focusing on those targeting "sweet spots" in personalized medicine. More >

Investment Banker Kevin DeGeeter's Best Idea Yet
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (5/10/12)
Personalized medicine and targeted therapeutics are about narrowing down disease to achieve more definitive diagnostics and then finding more precise therapies. One could argue that every person's cancer is a different disease because the tumor cells contain the patient's own genome and are therefore different from the next individual's tumor cells. Newer genetic-based technologies are useful in detecting disease that was previously undetectable. Analyst and Director Kevin DeGeeter of New York City-based investment bank Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. follows personalized medicine and medical device companies ranging from small- to mid-cap, where investors can still reap multiples on original investment. I recently interviewed him for The Life Sciences Report and learned to look at cancer treatment in a new way. More >

Investing in Biotech Stocks: The Latest Buyout Candidate
Source: Diane Alter, Money Morning  (5/10/12)
"The M&A possibilities—as well as deep pipelines—have triggered surging investor interest in the biotech sector." More >

US May Speed Approval of 'Breakthrough' Drugs
Source: Reuters, Anna Yukhananov  (5/9/12)
"Experimental drugs that show a big effect early in development for treating serious or life-threatening diseases would get a faster and cheaper path to U.S. approval under a proposal likely to become law this year." More >

GlaxoSmithKline Goes Hostile in Bid for Human Genome Sciences
Source: Miyanville, Brett Chase  (5/9/12)
"GlaxoSmithKline has launched a hostile bid for Human Genome Sciences, three weeks after the biotech spurned a $2.6B takeover offer." More >

Scientists Discover New Inflammatory Target
Source: ScienceDaily  (5/9/12)
"Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have found a new therapeutic target to combat inflammation. The findings could lead to potential therapies for millions of people who suffer from arthritis." More >

Taxing Jobs out of Existence: George Will on the Medical Device Tax
Source: Washington Post, George Will  (5/9/12)
"In 2010 Congress, ravenous for revenue to fund Obamacare, imposed a 2.3% tax on gross revenue from U.S. sales of medical devices beginning in 2013. The tax might, however, be repealed." More >

Researchers Tap into the Final Frontier: The Sea
Source: Patricia F. Dimond, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News  (5/7/12)
"Currently, 13 therapeutic agents with marine origins are in clinical development." More >

Catalysts Move Drug and Medtech Stocks: Michael Hay and Jocelyn August
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report   (5/3/12)
When studying stock charts it is not hard to see sharp spikes up and deep nosedives related to development milestones and setbacks in the life cycle of a drug or medtech company. The analysts at San Diego-based Sagient Research Systems have made a science out of following the regulatory and media events that can move stocks. In this exclusive interview with The Life Sciences Report, Sagient Vice President Michael Hay and Senior Analyst Jocelyn August demonstrate their expertise with actionable ideas and provide names of companies through which investors might reap profits. More >

Looking at Small Medtech and Biotech in Canada: Nick Waddell
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (5/3/12)
Is there a developing Silicon Valley model in Canada? Not quite yet, but Publisher and Founding Editor Nick Waddell of the Vancouver-based Cantech Letter would like to see that happen. Meanwhile, he's looking for—and finding—exciting small- and micro-cap ideas as potential big returners. In this exclusive interview with The Life Sciences Report, Waddell discusses current favorite healthcare names that will surely surprise people who have not been looking North. More >

What is the 'ASCO Effect'?
Source: Deborah Baratz, Money Morning  (5/3/12)
"The ASCO Effect move often starts in April. But there's almost always an additional stretch in May during which oncology stocks experience near-vertical spikes in very short periods." More >