Pfizer to Acquire Seagen Pfizer (PFE) is to acquire Seagen (SGEN) for $229 per share in cash, for a total enterprise value of approximately $43 billion Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Pfizer is deploying its financial resources to advance the battle against cancer, a leading cause of death worldwide with a significant impact on public health. Together, Pfizer and Seagen …

Akero Therapeutics Financing Transactions Akero Therapeutics (AKRO) is one of the selected firms for the Prohost Portfolio. The firm is clinical-stage and develops treatments for metabolic diseases marked by high . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

The Stock Market Continues to Plummet Indeed, the Stock Market continues to decline, losing investors' profits.   Each time the Market plummets it takes with it promising firms' stocks but when the biotech stocks plummet new reasons are always claimed for the decline. Today's claimed reason for the deep losses is the tension between Russia and Ukraine, which, as it happens, is not the only …

We Are Back! Thanks to God. Hello to all our subscribers. Our sickness was unanticipated, making our year start in February rather than January. We will tackle the sickness later in another article. Now it is time to appreciate and offer our love and thanks from the bottom of our hearts for those who wished us well, prayed for our recovery and made it happen. …

Pfizer Received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA for Paxlovid Pills for COVID-19 Good news for Pfizer (PFE), the U.S. FDA announced it has authorized the emergency use of PAXLOVID™ for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kg) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that cause COVID-19) viral testing …

Comprehensive Prohost Letter Issues Coronavirus Variant Omicron A lot has happened since the coronavirus variant Omicron was discovered in South Africa. After having been responsible for a severe plummeting of the stock market, Omicron boosted the market after being described by many scientists as fast spreading with different yet milder symptoms when compared to those caused by SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and …

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Announced Pfizer Update of Vupanorsen Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) announced that Pfizer's (

Valneva SE and Pfizer Inc Announced More Positive Trial Results of VLA15 for Lyme Disease What is Lyme Disease? What is the vaccine? What is the importance of the vaccine and the company that created it?    Lyme disease is an infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria transmitted to humans by infected Ixodes ticks. Lyme disease is considered the most common vector- borne illness in the Northern Hemisphere. The U.S. …

Prohost Portfolio PLUS #3 CureVac N.V. We were looking forward to learning more important details about the German firm, CureVac N.V. (CVAC), when the company announced business updates and financial results for its fourth quarter and full-year 2020. The reason for our interest was the fact that the U.S. was looking to take over this firm two years ago to no avail. A more important …

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine According to a new analysis posted online by the FDA, the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) vaccine is providing strong protection against severe disease and death related to COVID-19 infection. The vaccine may reduce the spread of the virus from vaccinated people. The vaccine is said to have a 72% efficacy rate in the U.S. and 64% in South Africa. The …

ViiV Healthcare Announced FDA Approval for Cabenuva for Adults with HIV-1 From London we learned that ViiV Healthcare announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Cabenuva, the first and only complete long-acting regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults. ViiV Healthcare is a global HIV company majority-owned by GlaxoSmithKline (

Intellia Therapeutics Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) stock price headed south probably because some robots learned that the firm commenced an underwritten public offering of $150 million of shares of its common stock. In addition to the commenced public offering Intellia announced its intention to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional fifteen percent (15%) of the shares . . . This content is …

Pfizer, BioNTech & Moderna When asked whether we heard the news about the submission of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and whether we will inform our readers about it. Our answer was that we have posted many articles about Pfizer's (PFE) and BioNTech’s (

Pfizer and BioNTech Good News Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) announced that their mRNA-based vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) has demonstrated evidence of efficacy against COVID-19 in participants without prior evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 infection; this is based on the first interim efficacy analysis conducted on November 8, 2020 by an external, independent Data Monitoring Committee …

COVID-19 Vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna The three products whose trials were halted are not vaccines but, rather, antibodies that treat patients who already have COVID-19. With regard to the COVID-19 vaccines we believe we have encouraging news from Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines. The Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine  Pfizer (PFE) Chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla, stated that the mRNA vaccine developed together with BioNTech (BNTX) will …

President Trump, the First Lady and COVID-19 Indeed, the complicated, nasty SARS-CoV-2 virus managed to infect President Trump and the First Lady when we were expecting a vaccine to soon be ready to protect the country and the world from COVID-19. The president’s physicians did not treat the him with any of the investigational vaccines in late-phase trials; vaccines being developed by: Moderna (

CDC Is Asking States to Prepare for COVID-19 Vaccines The U.S. Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked the 50 states’ public health officials to be ready to distribute potential COVID-19 vaccines to high-risk people, healthcare workers and others as soon as late October, as showed in a document yesterday. The New York Times (NYT) has also reported today that the CDC has …

Firms' with COVID-19 Vaccines Stock Performance A look at the stock performance of the COVID-19 vaccine firms that have demonstrated early, promising and even good news regarding their prophylactic effect. The outcome was as follows:    Moderna (MRNA): was down over 12% after an analyst at J.P.Morgan downgraded the company to neutral from overweight, overvaluation . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please …

Pfizer and BioNTech Vaccines Were Granted FDA Fast Track Designation Against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) A large Phase 2b/3 safety and efficacy study may begin as early as July 2020 Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (

Prohost Letter #441 Biotechnology Companies’ Evaluations Are We Saying Goodbye to Common Sense? The SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines It is said that the difference between the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19), which is causing the pandemic around the world we are currently suffering from, and other coronaviruses like SARS and/or MERS is that SARS-CoV-2 ability to replicate in the human bodies' respiratory system’s upper airways more than the others. …

Novel Coronavirus Vaccines and Wall Street Vaccines against novel coronavirus are recognized now as the only way to return disrupted human lives back to normal. Vaccines have become the most important topic for Wall Street’s investors and analysts especially at times when the virus demonstrates its capability to continue disrupting human lives on the entire planet. Betting up and down on the firms that are …

The Week in Review #51 Questions & Answers About CytomX Q: Is there any reason for the CytomX stock selloff that occurred in early May? In order to answer this question we need to explain CytomX’s (CTMX) Probody therapeutics. These novel treatments are designed to remain inactive until they are activated only . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe …

RegenxBio License Agreement with Pfizer RegenxBio (RGNX) announced a license agreement with Pfizer (PFE). Under the terms of the agreement RegenxBio has granted Pfizer a non-exclusive worldwide license, with rights to sublicense, to RegenxBio’s NAV AAV9 vector for the development and commercialization of gene therapies for Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). The most common hereditary ataxia (neurological lack of muscle coordination). RegenxBio will receive an upfront payment and has …

Sangamo and Pfizer Gene Therapy SB-525 Resulted in a Sustained Increase in Factor VIII Levels in Hemophilia Patients Sangamo Therapeutics (SGMO) and Pfizer (

Pfizer to Acquire Array Pfizer (PFE) announced that it has agreed to acquire Array Biopharma (ARRY) in a deal valued at $11.4 billion.  The Terms of the Agreement Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will pay $48 in cash for each Array share. That is around 62% above the $29.59 stock price as it closed on Friday. The price paid represents around $10.64 billion …

Sangamo’s Stock Price Soars Sangamo Therapeutics’ (SGMO) stock soared more than 52% in pre-market trading following the announcement with Pfizer (PFE), of interim data from Phase 1/2 Alta study evaluating the firm’s gene therapy product SB-525 for severe hemophilia A.  The Product, SB-525 SB-525 comprises a recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 6 vector (AAV6) encoding the complementary deoxyribonucleic acid for B domain deleted human FVIII. The …

A number of biotech or biopharmaceutical companies have succeeded in the past couple of years in changing their statuses from clinical stage to revenues-generating firms. A number of these firms reside in the Prohost Portfolio, picked up before they generated revenues from their newly approved products’ sales. We are following up on these firms’ news as they come out of their new journeys towards marketing …

Tanezumab, an investigational humanized monoclonal antibody developed by Pfizer (PFE) and Eli Lilly (LLY), met all three co-primary endpoints in patients with osteoarthritis (OA). The 16-week Phase 3 study, which evaluated subcutaneous administration of tanezumab in patients with OA, demonstrated that the patients who received two doses of tanezumab, separated by eight weeks, experienced a statistically significant improvement in pain, physical function and patients’ overall assessment …

The Week in Review #31 IN THE DEPARTED WEEK NOVEL MIGRAINE DRUGS ARE APPROVED ELI LILLY AFTER AMGEN AND TEVA In less than five months, the FDA approved three products belonging to four drug developers – all targeting calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) for the prevention of migraine headache. The latest for Eli Lilly (LLY) last week . . . This content is for paid subscribers. …

ProhostLetter #423 TOMORROW’S THERAPEUTICS TODAY For a more or less fair evaluation of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, analysts currently rely for their assessment on criteria that include quarterly financial results, products’ sales revenues, and year over year growth of each and every marketed therapeutic. When it comes to clinical-stage firms, the logic implies that these criteria cannot be relied on for evaluation, as most of …

SPARK THERAPEUTICS, SANGAMO THERAPEUTICS AND SALK INSTITUTE CURING HEMOPHILIA?   Hemophilia is an inherited bleeding disorder that causes abnormal or exaggerated bleeding and poor blood clotting. Hemophilia A and Hemophilia B are inherited in an X-linked recessive genetic pattern, so males are commonly affected while females are usually carriers of the disease. Hemophilia A is caused by clotting Factor VIII deficiency and hemophilia B (Christmas disease) is caused by Factor IX deficiency. A …

Prohost Letter #420 REAL BREAKTHROUGHS - One Has Already Been Used and the Other Has Extraordinary Promises In  the  NEWS - THE POWER OF CHECKPOINT INHIBITOR IMMUNOTHERAPY WOW It is about the checkpoint inhibitors immunotherapy, which is bringing to the world of cancer a stunning revelation of a combination treatment offering an almost cure for a lung cancer...

THE BIOTECH EVOLUTION: AN UNPARALLELED SPEED The Tremendous Regret Investors Will Feel If They Sell the Best of the Best Biotechnology Firms Only Because the Market Is Weird   Even if one is scared and feels he should sell shares, he must be wise enough to select those stocks whose prices are closer to reaching the targets he estimated as representing their fair values. Biotech investors who lend their ears to …

Sangamo’s (SGMO) has abundant positive news since it offered proof of concept and feasibility of its zinc finger protein transcription factor (ZFP-TF)-mediated gene regulation approach and other approaches. The most recent announcement was made early today by Sangamo and Pfizer (PFE) about a new collaboration. The cooperation aimed at developing a potential therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) linked to mutations of the C9ORF72 gene. The firms will …

The Week in Review #13 From the Prohost Portfolio - 1. Betting on the technology - HALOZYME - As expected, the pulse of fat agreements with HALO is accelerating . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

The Week in Review #9 KNOCKING DOWN THE BIOTECH STOCKS - Knocking down the biotech companies’ stocks during the announcement of the quarterly reports is no news. Most investors in the stock market, especially those who invest in the biotech sector have become familiar with this pattern . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Prohost Letter #413 FROM BIOTECH TO BIOPHARMA - New research, new findings, new discoveries of trustworthy and doubtful biomarkers more understanding of genomics and proteomics, in addition to more breakthrough diagnostic procedures, are all gifts of the life-science revolution. This revolution started with molecular biology, the discovery of the DNA and its functions, which was the prelude to genomic understanding, gene sequencing, and genetic engineering and …

Prohost Letter #412 Part 3 GLIOBLASTOMA - Is There Hope? Senator John McCain was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, glioblastoma – the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. The cancer is so aggressive that most surgeries did not provide survival. This brain cancer affects around 3 people out of 100,000 in the U.S., with men more than women and whites more than other …

GlycoMimetics (GLYN) is a development-stage biotechnology company focused on cancer and sickle cell disease. The firm’s most advanced drug, rivipansel, a pan-selectin antagonist, is being developed for vaso-occlusive crisis in sickle cell disease. The product is in a Phase 3 clinical trial being conducted by GlycoMimetics’ strategic collaborator, Pfizer. But the recent news is about GlycoMimetics’ wholly-owned drug candidate, GMI-1271, an E-selectin antagonist, is being evaluated …

PTC THERAPEUTICS Why Buying Emflaza? Buying Emflaza, a steroid approved by the FDA for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) from Marathon Pharmaceuticals invited an intractable headache to PTC Pharmaceuticals’ shareholders and scrutiny by some law makers. The cause of the law makers’ involvement has been the Marathon’s pricing Emflaza at $89,000, but PTCT shareholders had several question marks revolving around the motive for buying this drug …

GENE EDITING Sangamo Biosciences: Is it a Comeback? Genome editing allows the creation of therapeutics that can modify the genome in a living cell, providing unprecedented reach that would help the creation of treatments for genetic diseases. The dream about emerging solutions through genome editing techniques, which could correct genetic mutations causing diseases seems to be turning into reality. Among the innovative firms in this …

Prohost Letter #407 AT A GLANCE - Firms Added to Prohost Portfolio PROHOST IS PICKING NEUROCRINE BIOSCIENCES   On March 27, a few days before the FDA approves Neurocrine’s (NBIX) drug Ingrezza, (valbenazine) capsules for adults with tardive dyskinesia (TD), we posted an article titled “Time for Transformation and Achievements”. In the article, we stated that Neurocrine Sciences Ingrezza will highlight Neurocrine Biosciences and its …

Everybody knows Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), but just a few may know anything about CytomX Therapeutics (CTMX), or about its Probody Program. CytomX is a small, develop-ment-stage firm that created platform known as the Probody Program, which leads to the creation of first in class Probody therapeutics. These therapeutics are meant to overcome safety and efficacy problems encountered by the antibodies that are currently used in …

Prohost Letter #401 SYNOPSIS PART 1 In this Letter CONTENTS Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) FDA Compassionate Approval of Eteplirsen! PART 2 In The Letter Issue #402 CONTENTS EYE ON IONIS (IONS) Antisense Proof of Concept and Feasibility EYE ON INVIVA (INVA) AND THERAVANCE BIOPHARMA (TBPH) Sales of The Ellipta Inhalers Started to Pick up Before an expected Boom Not Losing . . . This content …

Prohost Letter #400 NEAR-­TERM INVESTING The Prohost Letter #399 Part 3 has Promised to Des

Pfizer accepted to pay $14 billion in cash to acquire Medivation. It is important for investors to know what Pfizer is after with regard to this acquisition so that investors could sense the current deep-pocketed biopharmaceutical firms’ preferences in selecting their takeover targets. Recognizing the facts behind Pfizer’s decision could also protect investors from being mislead by negative bloggers who, while serving their own agendas, …

Le CompaGnon Part 2 Wednesday June 22, 2016 From the  American Society of  Clinical  Oncology (ASCO)               Checkpoint inhibitors the CAR T Approach Adoptive cell therapy Oncolytic virus therapy Therapeutic vaccines Cytokines. Le CompaGnon Part 1 dealt with: - The two firms, MERK and BMY, who were the first to get approvals of their checkpoint inhibitors. These two . . . This content is for paid …

Le CompaGnon Part 1 TUESDAY June 14, 2016 The Eternal Market Games Unfortunately, the fabrication and misrepresentation of reality in media articles about member firms of the biotech sector succeeded in devastating promising companies having exceptional technologies and products. The damages went far beyond investors unwarranted losses. The damages were grave as to ruin of many firms. Indeed, many promising firms were forced to declare …

Prohost Letter #396 CELEBRATING MEMORIAL DAY - Wish you celebrated the Memorial Day. Memorial Day’s purpose was remembering the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces. The Memorial Day was initiated as Decoration Day after the Civil War in the year 1868 when the Grand Army of the Republic - an organization of Union Veterans in Illinois established it to decorate the graves …

Pfizer (PF) terminated its acquisition agreement with Allergan Plc (AGN) The new set of rules released by the U.S. Treasury Department to make it difficult for U.S. companies to conduct tax inversions contributed Pfizer’s decision. Analysts noted that the new regulations seem almost directly aimed at Pfizer-Allergan. In one of two major parts of the new rules, the U.S. government would not consider the assets acquired …

PFIZER Pfizer (PF) announced that its oral drug tofacitinib in doses of 5 mg and 10 mg twice daily  met Phase 3 endpoints on psoriatic arthritis. The trial was conducted on adult patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The recruited patients had an inadequate response to at least one conventional anti-rheumatic drug (csDMARD) and were tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi)-naïve. Patients enrolled in the study were …

Prohost Letter #393 IMMUNOTHERAPY - PROHOST PORTFOLIO - NEW PICKS? - A Brief Reminder of the CAR T –TCR Immunotherapy Approaches In this issue we continue our journey inside the territory of cancer immunotherapy. We remind that in the Prohost Letter issue #391, we dealt with the immunotherapy based on genetically engineered T Cells, enabling them to seek out, attack and neutralize cancer cells. The immune system’s T …

Prohost Letter #378 Part 2 2015 ASCO ANNUAL MEETING What a Big Revolution in Oncology! The ASCO meeting projected the huge advancement in the understanding, diagnosing and treating cancer. What looked as if a sudden explosion has brought in the big change, the change was, in fact a slow, deep-rooted evolution, built up over a long period of trial and error with the failures constituting …

Prohost Letter #376 WHILE LOOKING AT THE BIOTECHS SCIENTIFIC FUNDAMENTALS We keep an eye on other factors That influence the stocks Investors who pick their stocks based on the firms’ solid scientific fundamentals, technological capabilities and pipeline products’ promises are mostly long-termers. They usually keep the stock they meticulously picked until they reach the goals that motivated them to pick it in the first place. …

Prohost Letter #375 Part 1 BIOTECHNOLOGY: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA STATE- OF-THE-ART APPROACHES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC AND DEADLY DISEASES ARE IN HUMAN CLINICAL TRIALS We are encouraged by some novel treatments for chronic diseases and cancer and we are optimistic about results coming from their early- and late-phase trials. Picking advanced therapeutics is the magic word Sesame in the formula “Open Sesame”, which, …