Illumina Acquisition of GRAIL On September 21, 2020, Illumina and GRAIL Inc. announced that they entered into a definitive agreement under which Illumina will acquire GRAIL for cash and stock consideration of $8 billion, upon closing of the transaction. On March 31, 2021, Illumina announced that it disagrees with, and will oppose, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) challenge to its previously announced acquisition of GRAIL. Illumina …

Rubius Therapeutics Finding small development-stage biotech firms that contribute to biotechnology's limitless revolution of the biological sciences is difficult, but indispensable. Falling on firms that might have the science, the technological capability and the inspiration towards creating new diagnostics and treatments for severe diseases, is rewarding through improving lives.       Learning about Rubius Therapeutics (RUBY) has given us the impression . . . This content …

Prohost Portfolio PLUS (formerly The Week in Review) Your Questions, Our Answers In the upcoming issues of Prohost Portfolio PLUS, as with all our Tables, we will include observations and target changes as well as any current news we feel is important enough to be reviewed and/or discussed. We hope you will visit us weekly for updates. Included in this Issue are the Following: Anixa …

Current Presentations from Intellia Therapeutics  Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) is presenting the first preclinical data set on its novel cytosine deaminase base editor technology at the seventh Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) virtual scientific meeting on Nucleic Acid Therapies. The data shows how the Company’s proprietary base editors can expand its genome editing capabilities by enabling the introduction of multiple gene knockouts simultaneously with no detectable increase in …

Novartis Positive Results for Radioligand Therapy, 177Lu-PSMA-617, for mCRPC Novartis (NVS) reported the first interpretable results of evaluating the efficacy and safety of 177Lu-PSMA-617, a targeted radioligand therapy, in patients with progressive PSMA-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) compared to the best standard of care alone. The good news is that the trial has met both primary endpoints of overall survival (OS) and radiographic progression-free …

Prohost Letter #445 A Flashback and Future Projections 1. A Follow-Up on Recently Posted News from ProhostBiotech 2. Answering Questions 3. Development-Stage Firms to Outperform 4. Oversold Revenue-Generating Firms 5. Tables with FAIR 2021 Targets for the Prohost Selected Firms In This Issue We Discuss the Following Firms: Anixa Biosciences (

Negative News from Ionis Pharmaceuticals  Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) announced that its partner, Roche (RHHBY),

CureVac CureVac B.V. (CVAC) is a global biopharmaceutical company specializing in messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. The firm has more than 20 years of expertise in developing and optimizing versatile biological molecules for prevention and treatment purposes. CureVac’s proprietary technology principle is the use of non-chemically modified mRNA as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce . . . This content is for …

AstraZeneca to Supply Additional Doses of AZD7442 to the U.S. for COVID-19  AstraZeneca (AZN) has modified an existing agreement with the U.S. Government to supply up to 500,000 additional doses of AZD7442 - a long-acting antibody (LAAB) combination in late-stage development, for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. We stress . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to …

Immutep Ltd and Merck Announce Second Clinical Trial Collaboration Immutep (IMMP) develops novel immunotherapy treatments for cancer, infectious disease and autoimmune diseases. Today, Immutep announced a second clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck & Co (MRK) subsidiaries, Kenilworth, NJ, USA (known as “MSD” outside the United States and Canada). Immutep will conduct a new Phase IIb clinical trial in 1st line head and …

Gilead Sciences and Merck Announced Agreement for Long-Term HIV Combination Treatment Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Merck (MRK . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Anixa Biosciences Outperformance Anixa Biosciences Inc (ANIX) is the worldwide licensee of a patent technology titled "Ovarian Cancer Vaccine" which was created at Cleveland Clinic. Anixa Therapeutics specializes in the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious diseases. The firm made the announcement about the European Patent Office’s issuance and publication . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or …

Aveo Oncology Received FDA Approval for FOTIVDA for Advanced RCC Aveo Oncology (AVEO) drug FOTIVDA is an oral, next-generation vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). It is a potent, selective inhibitor of VEGFRs 1, 2, and 3 with a long half-life designed to improve efficacy and tolerability. AVEO plans to make FOTIVDA available to patients in the U.S. by March 31, 2021. …

Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline Recommended to Stop Phase 3 COMET-ICE Trial Vir Biotechnology (VIR) and GlaxoSmithKline (

Updated Findings from bluebird bio bluebird bio analyses demonstrate lentiviral vector BB305 unlikely to be the cause of AML in a clinical study of LentiGlobin for SCD bluebird bio initiated a process with regulators to resume clinical studies bluebird bio (BLUE)

The Nonsensical Downgrading of Development-Stage Firms Like Intellia Therapeutics It makes no sense to downgrade a development-stage firm such as CRiSPR gene editing IntelliaTherapeutics (NTLA) when only based on stopping short of attaining analysts’ expectations with regard to revenues and incomes. Development-stage firms yet to have products on the market to generate money, contrarily, serious development-stage firms . . . This content is for paid …

Prohost Letter #444 The End of the Year Issue was delayed because our 2020 Prohost Portfolio stocks’ targets for the year failed to materialize; nobody not even the authorities were capable of predicting the pandemic, which continues to plague the world. As 2021 approached, we were unable to the End of the Year issue on time as we lacked the information required for the fair …

Ovid Therapeutics & Takeda Announce Agreement for Soticlestat Ovid Pharmaceuticals is eligible to receive up to $856M in payments, including a $196M upfront payment, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and tiered double-digit royalties on product sales Potential first-in-class therapy reduced seizure frequency in children with Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome in Phase 2 ELEKTRA study Original 2017 collaboration between Ovid and Takeda to conclude; Ovid …

KemPharm Inc KemPharm Inc (KMPH) - a specialty pharmaceutical focused on the discovery and development of proprietary prodrugs, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the New Drug Application (NDA) for AZSTARYS™, a once-daily product for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log …

Aslan Pharmaceuticals  Aslan Pharmaceuticals (ASLN) is a clinical-stage immunology company announced positive interim unblinded data from three dose cohorts of its ongoing randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled multiple ascending dose study of ASLAN-004 for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.   ASLAN004 was well tolerated across all doses. It demonstrated improvements compared . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log …