Trick or Trade? The Misleading Market? The biotech stocks continue to begin their daily trading relying on opinionated articles implanted by bloggers on the Internet rather than on the firms’ voiced news.  It is unfortunate that we continue to observe many investors incapable of pinpointing the differences between the fake and the real in interpreting the news. We do not blame them; however, as those …

Gilead and insitro Collaborate to Discover and Develop Novel Therapies for NASH using ISH Gilead Sciences (GILD) and insitro entered into a strategic collaboration to discover and develop treatments for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH A chronic form of liver disease characterized by excess fat in the liver, inflammation, and liver cell damage. Inflammation and liver cell damage can cause scarring of the liver or fibrosis. Ultimately leading …

  Conquering NASH Gilead and Novo Nordisk Conquering NASH What was Gilead Sciences' (GILD) announcement at EASL? What is Gilead doing to find effective treatments for NASH? Why would Novo Nordisk's (NVO) anti-diabetes GLP-1 receptor drug fit as part of a combination for NASH treatment? Is there any Proof of concept offered for any of the combination therapies? What percentage of patients had . . . This …

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Gilead The FINCH 1 trial: Has it reached its primary endpoints? How did the drugs respond as compared to placebo; what is the disability index, clinical remission, disease activity rate and safety results? What’s happening with Gilead’s HIV product? Read about Gilead’s collaboration with Galapagos. See how Prohost answers these questions in this issue #430 of the Prohost Letter. Novartis, Novartis, Novartis …

The Week in Review #39 During the Departed Week Three Prohost Portfolio Picks Hit Their 52-Week Highs The three picks referred to in the above title are, Novartis (NVS), Array (AARY) and Ionis (IONS). Previous Prohost Letters discussed Novartis and Array and continued to remind that they are Prohost favorites. The time has come to take a deeper look at Ionis; starting with the reasons …

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 …

From the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU) Prostate Cancer A presentation by Bayer demonstrated improvement in the treatment of non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Separate presentations by Bristol-Myers and Janssen also demonstrated improvement in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Non-Metastatic Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer Bayer Results from pivotal Phase 3 ARAMIS trial with Bayer’s (BAYRY) and Orion Corporation’s jointly-developed product darolutamide plus …

Gilead Sciences (GILD) has news that begins with an announcement today that Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved Epclusa® (sofosbuvir 400mg/velpatasvir 100mg). Epclusa is once-daily treatment for adults with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with decompensated cirrhosis, and for patients with chronic HCV infection without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis who have had prior treatment with a direct-acting antiviral therapy (DAA). In Japan, no treatment option …

Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Scholar Rock Holding Corporation (SRRK) announced entering into a strategic collaboration to discover and develop highly specific inhibitors of transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) activation for the treatment of fibrotic diseases. Under the terms of the agreement Gilead has exclusive options to license worldwide rights to product candidates that emerge from the following three Scholar Rock TGFβ programs:  – Inhibitors that target activation of latent …

Agenus (AGEN) announced recently that it entered into an immuno-oncology (I-O) partnership with Gilead Sciences (GILD). The partnership is focused on developing and commercializing up to five novel I-O therapies. The terms of the agreement Agenus is entitled to receive a $120 million upfront cash payment and a $30 million equity investment.   The agreement also includes approximately $1.7 billion in potential future fees and milestones. …

The Chinese National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved Gilead’s (GILD) HIV combination product Descovy®.  In China, Descovy is to be indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in adults and adolescents (aged 12 years and older with a body weight of at least 35 kg). TAF, which is part of the combination treatment, is a novel, targeted prodrug of …

The Week in Review #35 Politics and the Market The market tumbled today as Theresa May, the Prime Minister of England, delayed the Brexit vote!  The question becomes, what will be put forth next as a legitimate reason for bringing the market down and eroding investors’ gains? The weather? A war among gangs in a fourth-world country? Maybe the resignation of the chairman of a …

Today, the market took another beating as a result of either an intentional or an unintentional lack of clearance by professionals in describing correctly the standing of employment and other current economic realities. They pinpointed irrelevant reasons in an effort to justify the Stock Market's tumbling.  One big headline was that 150,000 added jobs did not meet expectations. They never explained whether those jobs were all …

The Week in Review #33 WE CALL IT THE BAD MARKET The Federal Reserve’s raising of the interest rate does not and should not mean a demise of the companies trading on the NASDAQ and other stock exchanges. The biotech group of firms with strong scientific fundamentals will not stop innovating and bringing breakthroughs to millions of people who are desperate for them if an …

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 #30 FROM THE DEPARTED WEEK In the past week, we came across a lot of news announcing research, clinical trial results, collaborations, product approvals and acquisitions. Much of the departed week’s news though, does not represent complete stories, especially the ones related to research. They represented early works in progress offering no concrete results that we can evaluate. Important news for …

Gilead Sciences (GILD) has news that we felt good about it for a company that saved millions of lives from the minute, but monster viruses HIV and HCV. Curing millions of patients with HCV, has led Gilead to decide that the time has come for bringing cures to many horrible diseases. Yesterday, September 12, the news announced that Gilead and Precision BioSciences have entered into …

The Week in Review #29 PROHOST AGGRESSIVE PORTFOLIO  - The aggressive portfolio hosts biotech firms with solid scientific fundamentals and prominent scientists whose stocks have plummeted following some setbacks. A setback could be a failure of an investigational product to meet the endpoints of its clinical trial or that the small biotech firm has taken long to achieve its goals . . . This content …

Gilead Sciences’ (GILD) and Galapagos’ (GLPG) product filgotinib – a highly selective JAK1 inhibitor has met the primary efficacy endpoint in Phase 2 TORTUGA trial in adults with moderately to severely active ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Patients treated with filgotinib achieved significantly greater improvements compared to those who took a placebo. The results came from the Phase 2 of the TORTUGA – a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, …

The Week in Review #28 The approval of revolutionary products created by biotech firms with solid scientific fundamentals, superior scientists and advanced technologies is what motivates us to pick for investment biotech and biopharmaceutical firms. So, let’s see what has been approved in the parting week  from firms that we picked for investment.       IMPORTANT APPROVALS       Prohost Picked Firm     …