CRISPR Therapeutics' (CRSP) stock added around $8 today while reporting financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2018. Here is what Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics, has stated,“This past year was truly transformational for CRISPR Therapeutics as we achieved milestones across our key programs in β-thalassemia, sickle cell disease and immuno-oncology. We’re pleased with the progress we’ve made in …

The pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-240 trial evaluating Merck’s (MRK) checkpoint inhibitor anti-PD-1 therapy plus best supportive care, for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who were previously treated with systemic therapy, did not meet its co-primary endpoints of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) compared with placebo plus best supportive care. The improvement of OS results demonstrated in the final analysis did …

Today, at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (GU) held at Moscone West in San Francisco, CA, Nektar (NKTR) will present preliminary efficacy, safety and immune monitoring data from the ongoing metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) patient cohort in the PIVOT-02 study evaluating NKTR-214 in combination with Bristol-Myers immunotherapy product OPDIVO (nivolumab). NKTR-214 is a CD122-biased agonist designed to provide sustained …

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) will acquire Celgene (CELG) in a cash and stock transaction with an equity value of approximately $74 billion. Under the terms of the agreement: Celgene shareholders will receive 1.0 Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50.00 in cash for each share of Celgene. They will also receive one tradeable Contingent Value Right (CVR) for each share of Celgene, which will entitle the holder to receive a …

The Week in Review #34 Improving on Immunotherapy and preventing one of its serious side effects. Removal of glutamine leads to a substantial reduction in cell growth or induces cell death in certain types of cancer cells, indicating that these cells are dependent on, or "addiected" to, glutamine. Normal cells do not depend much on glutamine . . . This content is for paid subscribers. …

The Week in Review, which we will post soon, is going to provide news that cancer patients, their parents, their oncologists and investors are anxiously waiting to hear.   The news is about studies with products demonstrating huge improvements in immunotherapy efficacy in addition to preventing checkpoint inhibitors such as: Opdivo, Keytruda and others, from causing adverse effects, including autoimmune reactions that are serious and …

Yesterday, the Stock Market skyrocketed and with it a significant number of Prohost Picks that we keep reminding ourselves are undervalued. The outperformance unveiled the interred strength of firms such as: Illumina (ILMN), Amgen (AMGN) and Vertex (VRTX), the gene therapy firms: RegenxBio (RGNX) and Spark (ONCE), and the gene editing firms: Crispr (CRSP), Intellia (NTLA) and Editas (EDIT), as well as others in the Prohost Portfolio. The rebounding in the …

Exelixis (EXEL) provided an update that testified to its solid fundamentals, the growth of its approved products’ sales, the professionalism and seriousness of its management. Revenues: Exelixis’ total quarter revenues were $225.4 million vs. $152.5 million for the comparable period in 2017. Its net product sales revenues were $162.9 million for the quarter compared to $96.4 million for the comparable period in 2017, which represents a 69 percent increase year-over-year. …

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 …

IMMUNOTHERAPY  The Checkpoint Inhibitors The most revered news was the discovery of the checkpoint proteins on the surface of the immune system cells. The checkpoint proteins’ natural job is to put a break on the immune system cells to prevent them from attacking people’s own body cells. An immune attack on host cells can lead to disabling and life-threatening autoimmune diseases. Long before the scientists …

The Week in Review #32 POSITIVE NEWS PROTEOSTASIS THERAPEUTICS Cystic Fibrosis Two days ago, a clinical-­stage small firm called Proteostasis Therapeutics (PTI) announced positive preliminary results from ongoing Phase 1 cystic fibrosis studies. The trial involved the firm’s proprietary combination therapy doublet, PTI-­808 + PTI-­801...

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. …

Exciting are the Q2 2018 reported results by Exelixis’ (EXEL) including the firm’s revenues and earnings, compared to 2017. Impressive were Cabometyx’ (cabozantinib) revenues, in addition to the milestone payments from collaborating companies and ex-USA marketing agent. Inspiring also are the efforts the firm is spending on research and development with the aim of further boosting its revenues. Of the Results Revenues and Incomes – …

The Future is Starting Now Recognizing that the future has already started now is important as it makes analysts use different criteria for the fair evaluation of the future growth of biotechnology startups and revenue-generating companies. This is our main topic the Prohost Letter that we are working diligently working on posting at any time now. This is extremely important to know before the hype …

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Agilent Technologies’ (NYSE: A) Dako PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx assay for an expanded use. The expended use is expected to help physicians to identify cervical cancer patients who are most likely to benefit from treatment with Merck’s (MRK) checkpoint inhibitor lmmuno-oncology product Keytruda PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx assay was FDA approved for non-small cell lung cancer and subsequently expanded approval for gastric …

– Keytruda becomes the first anti-PD-1 therapy to be approved for PMBCL   – This is the 2nd indication for Keytruda for a hematologic malignancy. – The approval is based on tumor response rate and durability of response. The FDA granted Merck (MRK) approval for its immuno-oncology checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda® for adult and pediatric patients with refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), or for those who relapsed after two …

The real news coming from the presentation at ASCO related to the combination of Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) was viewed as positive by many analysts and investor until a sell-side negative article led to an unwarranted giant selloff of the stock. Last Week Nektar Stock gained $10 dollars over news that the firm has already submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA for NKTR-181, which is …

It is obvious that Exelixis’ (EXEL) first quarter results do not justify the selling of EXEL during the whole quarter, but rather condemn it. It is an undeniable fact that Exelixis is doing a great job squeezing the best out of its approved drugs while conducting persistent research and development regarding its investigational pipeline products. The unveiled facts comprise the following: – Strong commercial performance for CABOMETYX in advanced renal cell …

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...

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) Announce Global Development & Commercialization Collaboration for Nektar’s Product NKTR-214 The Collaboration is to evaluate the full-potential of NKTR-214 plus Obdivo (nivolumab) across numerous tumors, based on promising early data from ongoing Phase 1/2 PIVOT clinical study. Establishes a broad joint clinical development plan combining NKTR-214 with Opdivo and Opdivo plus Yervoy (ipilmumab) in registration-enabling trials in more than 20 indications across 9 …