Posts Tagged ‘biotech’

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Transcept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSPT) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Shares of Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSPT) jumped $3.75 or 64.7 percent to $9.55 in morning trading on Monday, after the company announced a licensing deal for its insomnia treatment with Purdue Pharmaceuticals for up to $145 million, and royalty payments.

“This agreement is a transforming event for Transcept,” said Glenn A. Oclassen, President and CEO of Transcept Pharmaceuticals in a statement.

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Under the terms of the agreement, Purdue was granted the exclusive rights to sell Intermezzo in the U.S. and is able to negotiate for its approval in Mexico and Canada. Transcept Pharmaceuticals retains the rights to the drug in all other countries and has the option to co-promote Intermezzo to psychiatrists in the U.S.

The agreement states that Purdue will pay Transcept $25 million upfront, and up to $30 million more based on approval timing by the FDA. Additionally, Transcept could receive as much as $90 million more based on future benchmarks related to intellectual property and sales milestones.

The deal also includes royalties of greater than 10 percent and as much as about 25 percent for the Richmond, Calif.-based Transcept. If Transcept exercises the psychiatric co-promotion option, it will receive an additional double-digit royalty on those sales. Transcept can begin co-promotion as soon as one year after launch.

“We are excited to be working with Transcept towards the launch of this potential new entry into the prescription sleep aid market,” said Purdue’s President and CEO John H. Stewart. “This agreement is part of Purdue’s plan to diversify our product portfolio and broaden our commercial focus into therapeutic areas that complement our leadership position in pain.”

The active ingredient in Intermezzo is zolpidem, the same active ingredient in other insomnia sleep aids, such as Ambien. However, Intermezzo only has about one-third-to-one-quarter zolpidem as other insomnia treatments.

“We believe that Intermezzo has the potential to occupy an important position in the substantial worldwide market for prescription sleep aids, and that our U.S. partnership with Purdue is a key step toward the commercial success of Intermezzo.”

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Buzz Stock of the Day – Novogen (NVGN)

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Shares of Australian pharmaceutical company Novogen Ltd. (Nasdaq: NVGN) continued their climb today after closing up 24 percent on the day yesterday.

Shares were up as much as 83 percent presumably another run on yesterday’s news that researchers found that the investigational anti-tumor drug, phenoxodiol, to be effective in killing cancer cells.
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Phenoxodiol is licensed by Marshall Edwards (Nasdaq: MSHL), which is majority owned by Novogen Ltd.

The results make phenoxodiol a promising candidate for the treatment of pathologically activated lymphocytes such as those in acute lymphoid leukemia, or diseases driven by T-cell proliferation such as autoimmune diseases and graft-versus-host disease, according to an article published in the Haematologica Journal on June 16.


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Buzz Stock of the Day – Marshall Edwards (MSHL)

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Shares of Australian oncology company Marshall Edwards, Inc. (Nasdaq: MSHL) were up as much as 52 percent today after researchers found that the company’s chemosensitizing agent, Phenoxodiol has been shown to kill cancer cells.

“These findings indicate that phenoxodiol may have utility against autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, as well as having potential in management of graft rejection in transplantation patients,” said Prof. Alan Husband, Group Director of Research, Marshall Edwards, Inc.

Researchers at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, New Zealand found that abnormally proliferating human T-cells, rapidly dividing cancer cells such as primary myeloid and lymphoid leukemic blast cells undergo programmed cell death when exposed briefly to phenoxodiol.

Phenoxodiol is being developed to be used in combination with platinum drugs for late stage, chemoresistant ovarian cancer and as a monotherapy for prostate and cervical cancers.

The treatment is currently being investigated as a therapy for late-stage, chemoresistant ovarian, prostate and cervical cancers and as received Fast Track status from the FDA to facilitate its development as a therapy for recurrent ovarian and prostate cancers.

Phenoxodiol is part of a new breed of oncology drugs – multiple signal transduction regulators (abbreviated as ‘MSTR‘) — that act against the fundamentals of the cancer process, and has shown to kill virtually all types of cancer cells to which it has been exposed in the test tube, according to Marshall Edwards’ Web site. This includes breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, colorectal and head & neck carcinomas, mesotheliomas, leukemias, rhabdomyosarcoma and neuroglioma.

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Buzz Stock of the Day – GeoPharma, Inc. (GORX)

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Shares of GeoPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: GORX) were up as much as 155 percent at mid-day today.

Despite a 28 percent decrease in third quarter revenues, CEO Mihir Taneja said that the company is confident that it will “end the 2009 fiscal year on a high note” primarily because of the addition of new manufacturing contracts and the emergence of its pharmaceutical business.

Pharmaceutical revenues for the nine months ended December 31st were $1.1 million, a 2722 percent increase over the same period in 2007.

CFO, Carol Dore-Falcone stated that the company hopes to “achieve break even on a cash basis in the final quarter of 2009 fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, and to see continued improvements in our financial results thereafter.”

Earlier this year, the company announced the sale of its majority ownership in its ovarian cancer business for about $2.5 million in cash, and a minority stake in the business, allowing the company to strengthen its financial position and ease “the burden of funding our ovarian cancer business segment,” Taneja said. GeoPharma will still remain a significant partner in the business, with a 40 percent stake.

GeoPharma has three main market segments:

  • Specialty Pharma, which specializes in the formulation of generic drugs for human and veterinary usage and the development of medical devices used by oncologists and other medical professionals.
  • Manufacturing, which manufactures generic drugs nutraceuticals, cosmetics and functional food products
  • Distribution, which packages and distributes the company’s products

In September 2008, Green Coast Capital issued a 12-month price target of $5.00 on GORX, citing the company’s well-defined growth strategy, and FDA approval of its new Largo, FL Cephalosporin facility for the production of the antibiotic, Cephalexin.

Green Coast’s valuation was based on applying a standard 5x gross profit valuation multiple to the company’s current fiscal year gross profit forecast of $20.6 million, and subtracting the company’s current debt of $26.7 million.

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Buzz Stock of the Day – Antigenics (AGEN)

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Our Buzz Stock of the Day — Antigenics, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGEN) — was the big winner of today’s bio-tech rally.

Earlier this week, Antigenics said an analysis of patient data showed that patients with kidney cancer at intermediate risk of disease recurrence demonstrated an approximately 46 percent lower risk of death when treated with the company’s Oncophage® (vitespen) cancer therapy. Oncophage is currently approved only in Russia. The company has also filed for approval in the European Union.
Shares of Antigenics have risen almost 250% over the last 30 days.

“Demonstration of an overall survival benefit remains the gold standard, and these interim results show that Oncophage has a real promise of improving survival in patients with earlier-stage disease for whom current prognosis remains poor,” said Dr. Christopher Wood, who presented the survival results at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “Based on these results, Oncophage offers these patients a potential treatment that extends survival without significant toxicities.”

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