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     …

The Week in Review #23  ASCO  2018 - Small  publicly-­traded  oncology  biotech  firms,  large  oncology  biotech  firms,  and  giant  biopharmaceutical  firms,  in  addition  to  some  private  biotech  companies,  all  presented  results  and  observations  about  their  cancer  drugs  at  the  2018  American  Society  of  Clinical  Oncology  (ASCO)   meeting.  Most  presentations  were  useful,...

The Week in Review #22 What Went Right or Wrong in the Biotech Sector During the Departing Week? - A lot happened in the biotech sector during the week, which departed at midnight. Topping the list of the week’s events was the approval of Portola’s (PTLA) product  Andexxa . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Kite, a Gilead Company, and Sangamo Therapeutics Announce Collaboration to Develop Next-Generation Engineered Cell Therapies for Cancer Kite, a Gilead (GILD) company, and Sangamo Therapeutics (SGMO) announced a worldwide collaboration agreement for using Sangamo’s zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology platform for the development of next-generation ex vivo cell therapies in oncology. Kite will use Sangamo’s ZFN technology to modify genes to develop next-generation cell therapies for autologous and allogeneic use in treating …

Celgene (CELG) and Juno (JUNO) announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement upon which Celgene has agreed to acquire Juno. Celgene will pay $87 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $9 billion, net of cash and marketable securities acquired and Juno shares already owned by Celgene (approximately 9.7% of outstanding shares). The transaction was approved by the boards of directors of both companies. Juno …

Prohost Letter #416 Part 1 The Year In Review - 2017 Unheard of Programs - AN AWESOME YEAR for the biotech sector regarding its accomplishments. Many of the accomplished programs were unheard of regarding the degree of their positive impact on medical practice. Unfortunately, many of these accomplishments, which included the making of new discoveries, the creation of novel advanced technologies and the design of …

Gilead Sciences (GILD) has unsurprisingly agreed to acquire Cell Design Labs in a structured buy out valued for up to $567 million, including the shares of Cell Design Labs held by Kite, the CAR T firm that Gilead has recently acquired. Brian Atwood, President and CEO of Cell Design Labs, Inc., said, “Bringing our robust technology platforms under the Gilead umbrella, with its outstanding research …

The Treatment is Not A New Way as Being Stated, It is Only the Target, Which Has Been Changed   Outstanding news announced that leukemia patients who relapsed after being treated with the chimeric receptor antigen T cell (CAR T) targeting CD-19 were saved from imminent death by a CAR T targeting CD-22. The new treatment, which is being presented in some articles as a …

The Week in Review #11 A New Era - Faster than the speed of light, the management of diseases is shifting from fast improvement to a total gigantic unprecedented change. Some of the conquering approaches towards providing long-­lasting cures look as if the outcome of magic rather than mere science . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log …

Important news has come from the FDA, which issued new guidelines to speed the introduction of treatments with human cells and tissues, including gene therapy. Cracking down on rogue clinics offering dangerous or unproven versions of gene therapy or stem cell therapy is also included in the report. Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the FDA stated that regenerative medicine and other important gene therapy treatments …

The Week in Review #10 NO CONSPIRACY THEORIES - But this is what’s happening - In the past issue of The Week in Review, we wrote about the irrational pattern of selling the biotech stocks during the announcement of the quarterly results and how some investors are taking advantage of this pattern to sell their stocks before the quarterly results . . . This content …

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.

As expected by those who welcome good news from publicly-traded firms, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light to a second CART immuno-oncology product with the trade name Yescarta.  This drug, which has been developed by Kite Pharma is now belonging to Gilead Sciences (GILD) together with the rest of Kite’s CAR T wealthy pipeline after Gilead acquired Kite less than …

The Week in Review #7 A lot more happened in the past week regarding improving the treatment of cancer and of other devastating diseases. This issue contains discoveries that aim at improving breakthrough immuno-­oncology treatment outcomes. Here are some of the breakthrough technologies and treatments that might improve, by-­far, the management of cancer . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to …

The Week in Review #5 ALNYLAM (ALNY) and Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi announced that the APOLLO Phase 3 study of patisiran, an investigational RNAi therapeutic for hereditary ATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy, met its primary efficacy endpoint and all secondary endpoints. The primary endpoint for the study was the change from baseline in the modified neuropathy impairment score (mNIS+7) at …

Coming Soon... The Week in Review #3 Gilead Acquisition - Rallying by Association - Improving on Cancer Treatments...

The answer is, indeed, Gilead (GILD) and its CAR T drug approval will be for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). This is true, as in May, the FDA has accepted for priority review Kite Pharma’s Biologics License Application (BLA) for its genetically engineered Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T) product axicabtagene ciloleucel. The submission follows positive data demonstrated after a single infusion of axicabtagene ciloleucel in the …

Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) and Incyte (INCY) announced that, after discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in late August, Lilly will resubmit the New Drug Application (NDA) for baricitinib before the end of January 2018. That was fast, we mean the re-submission. To remind you, the firms had submitted Baricitinib for review seeking marketing approval for rheumatoid arthritis in the U.S., the …