Gilead Sciences to Acquire Forty Seven Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Forty Seven (FTSV) announced today that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Gilead will acquire Forty Seven for $95.50 per share in cash. The transaction, which values Forty-Seven at approximately $4.9 billion, was unanimously approved by both the Gilead and Forty Seven Boards of Directors and is anticipated to close during the second quarter …

Moderna Therapeutics Among all the firms announcing their interest in working towards designing and producing a preventive vaccine for COVID-19 only Moderna (MRNA) has accomplished that job and delivered it to the health authorities to decide upon the next step. Moderna’s stock soared. The stock did not go up in expectation of the millions . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here …

Gilead and Moderna Stocks Will Outperform Today As stated in Prohost Letter #439 Gilead (GILD) investigational product remdesivir has offered hope towards treating infected people with COVID-19. Regarding the possibility of rapidly designing, creating and developing a preventive vaccine against COVID-19 Moderna Therapeutics (MRNA) seems to have accomplished this task. That’s why we were confident that Gilead’s and Moderna’s stocks will outperform today in a …

CRISPR, Intellia and Editas CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) announced revenues of Q4 2019 that beat analysts’ expectations. Based on the good news the stock market’s technicians contributed to boosting the stock’s price enabling the stock to recuperate a large part of its unwarranted recent selloff losses. New investors, who finally heard about the CRISPR gene editing technique and the Companies that specialize in it, seem to …

Coronavirus On January 7, 2020, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was identified in humans in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. Additional cases have been found in the United States and in a growing number of countries around the world.    Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can lead to respiratory illness, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Coronaviruses are …

Nektar Therapeutics and Bristol-Myers Squibb Agreement Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) announced their agreement for a new joint development plan aimed at advancing the combination of Nektar’s bempegaldesleukin (bempeg) + Bristol-Myers’ Opdivo (nivolumab) into multiple new registrational trials. The decision is based on a revision of the strategic collaboration agreement. It includes a new plan where both firms will expand the active clinical development …

Cassava Sciences Stock is Rallying Cassava Sciences (SAVA) stock closed on Friday, December 27, 2019 at $5.21, reaching a 52-week high. Today, December 30, 2019 the stock is jumping higher, trading now at $6.40, UP $1.19 despite the underperforming market today. The reason for investors’ rush to buy the stock is due to the good news from a Phase 2 trial of Cassava’s Alzheimer Disease …

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals With the advancement of biological sciences, and increased information about the pathways of diseases, we are getting more interested in biotech firms that are focused on treating life-threatening diseases as the risk of failure is decreasing.  The successful outcome of trials would tremendously boost the values of these firms as we have witnessed in many small biotech firms that became large firms and …

Exelixis Positive Results from IMspire 150 Exelixis (EXEL) announced positive results from IMspire 150; the phase 3 trial of atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ®), cobimetinib (COTELLIC®) and vemurafenib (ZELBORAF®) in people with previously untreated BRAF V600 mutation-positive advanced melanoma.  The IMspire150 study met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS). Adding atezolizumab to cobimetinib and vemurafenib helped reduce the risk of disease worsening or death, compared to placebo plus …

Gilead’s CAR-T Product Yescarta Results Kite, a Gilead (GILD) subsidiary, announced new data from the ZUMA-1 trial of the CAR T Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in adult patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma. The data from the pivotal phase 2 study demonstrate that patients with refractory large B cell lymphoma were alive three years following a single infusion of Gilead’s CAR T immuno-oncology product Yescarta.  Analysis from …

Novartis to Acquire The Medicines Company Novartis (NVS) decided to buy The Medicines Company (MDCO) at $6.8 million. The Medicines Company’s shareholders will be getting $85 per share in cash  – a 45% premium to its unaffected share price and a 57% premium to its unaffected one-week average price. The Transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2020 The Medicines Company …

Alnylam Granted FDA Early Approval of GIVLAARI™ for AHP Alnylam’s (ALNY) stock outperformed as its subcutaneous injection GIVLAARI™ (givosiran) has been granted FDA early approval. GIVLAARI™ is created and developed for the treatment of adults with acute hepatic porphyria (AHP). AHP is a family of ultra-rare, genetic diseases characterized by debilitating, life-threatening attacks and, for some patients, chronic manifestations that demeans patients’ daily functioning and …

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics Rallied Today Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) and CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) announced positive, interim data from the first two patients with severe hemoglobinopathies treated with the investigational CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing therapy CTX001 in ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trials. A patient with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT) received CTX001 in the first quarter of 2019. Data for this patient reflect nine months of safety and efficacy follow-up. …

FDA Approval for Celgene and Acceleron Drug REBLOZYL® The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Celgene’s (CELG) and Acceleron Pharma’s (XLRN) drug REBLOZYL® (luspatercept-aamt) for anemia only in adult patients with beta thalassemia who require regular red blood cell (RBC) transfusions.  REBLOZYL® is the first and only FDA-approved erythroid maturation agent, representing a new class of therapy that works by regulating late-stage red blood cell maturation …

Halozyme Therapeutics is Focusing on ENHANZE® Technology Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO) decides to focus on its ENHANZE® drug delivery technology, halt the development activities for PEGPH20 and close its oncology operations. These decisions were made after the failure of HALO-301 Phase 3 clinical study evaluating PEGPH20 as a first-line therapy for patients with metastatic pancreas cancer to reach the primary endpoint of overall survival. The PEGPH20 failure …

Compugen FDA Approval for COM902 Compugen Announces FDA Clearance of IND Application for COM902 Phase 1 clinical study in patients with advanced malignancies expected to begin in early 2020 Clinical development of COM902 will enable testing the combination treatment with COM701, Compugen’s anti-PVRIG inhibitor  Compugen (CGEN) is a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company utilizing its broadly applicable, predictive computational discovery platforms to identify novel …

Regenxbio Misleading Selloff A selloff of Regenxbio (RGNX) stock, following the FDA’s partial hold on the intrathecal administration of AVXS-101, is unwarranted and totally misleading.   Why? Because the selloff of RGNX gave the impression that the gene therapy Zolgensma, using the adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector , developed by Regenxbio, has failed, which is not true. The partial hold was put only on the product …

Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences and HBV If Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals’ (SBPH) product inarigivir in combination with Gilead Sciences’ (GILD) Vemlidy® could validate the current encouraging results of the ongoing trials on chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, then the small underestimated firm would hand the giant biotech firm a valuable gift that could increase its sales revenues of its liver disease franchise.    The …

Reata Pharmaceuticals Omaveloxolone for Friedreich’s Ataxia On October 14, 2019 Reata Pharmaceuticals (RETA) announced the Part 2 portion of its Phase 2 MOXIe trial, with its product omaveloxolone, met its primary endpoint in modifying Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). The largest change occurred in the modified Friedreich’s Ataxia Rating Scale (mFARS) after 48 weeks of treatment.  Patients treated with omaveloxolone 150 mg/day demonstrated a statistically significant, 2.40 point …

Stock Market Volatility  Stocks can move up and down for various reasons but not all of them have anything to do with the real value of the firms. As a matter of fact, almost all stocks outperform for a while, reverse their course to underperforming, then restart the cycle. The stock market in its entirety does the same thing for reasons that have nothing to …