Tuesday June 20, 10:06 am Eastern Time
worldlyinvestor.com Daily Speculations
Cancer-Cure Stocks: Plenty of Fish in the Sea
By Laurel Kenner and Victor Niederhoffer, Columnists
The Speculators haul in a huge catch of fresh cancer-related stock picks. Research well before eating.
Like the rotating arm of an electric motor, the market alternatively was repulsed and attracted Monday by magnetic poles before the power was turned off, which much beautiful work accomplished.
Nasdaq 100 futures closed 4% higher at 3,982, within brushing distance of the 4,000 pole. As we were writing this column this morning, they hovered at 4,000 and we could not resist becoming the first to buy at the magic level.
We did so at 6:50 a.m. Eastern time. And in doing so, we neatly demonstrated showed that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle -- that aspect of quantum mechanics whereby the participant's attempts to measurement a subatomic particle affect the very dimensions of the spinning particle -- applies also to stock market spin. Regardless, it has been a beautiful 34% rise from the low just below the South Pole of 2,975, reached less than one horrible month ago on Wednesday, May 24.
Market Mechanics, Human Emotions
The influence of spin on stock market movement is much on our mind today. Our appreciation yesterday of Vic's dad and his horrible bout with the stasis boys among the chemotherapy establishment elicited some beautiful expressions of resonance from our readers. From the 20-something trader Steve Tobin: ``Went back and reread the article again. Sent it to a lady friend of mine who barely follows the market but is going through rough times and learning how to express the emotions. It is people like you who must share their wisdom and strength and courage. This is how us younger ones learn the right way.''
Dr. Andrew Coulter, whose Empirical Therapies provides information on how to stay healthy using the full gamut of science, alternative treatment and diet change, wrote: ``I would be interested to know if you get hostile reactions to the statements that you make about the cure (chemo) being worse than the disease. Unfortunately, it is all too true.'' He adds: ``There is an inverse correlation between the social standing and wealth of cancer patients and their survival. The 'best' medicine kills them faster. See what happened to Jackie Onassis and the King of Jordan: they were gone in a matter of weeks.''
Dr. Robert Blaustein, a medical doctor, chemist and electricity pioneer who works out of the Brandeis University hospital, cautions: ``Investors' enthusiasm for companies whose efforts are directed solely at cures for cancer should probably be tempered. Science can move quite slowly, and it can take a very long time to translate an interesting idea into a drug that works in the laboratory and then in humans. Many of the clever ideas out there (immunotoxins, suppressors, etc.) are not new, and yet we haven't seen enormous amounts of progress with them, in my book.''
We are well aware of the dangers of becoming overly optimistic about potential cancer drugs. Like Gilbert and Sullivan, Vic and Laurel try to strike the right balance in their work. Just as Gilbert never met a magic bullet plot he didn't love, Vic believes charms can be uplifting. While Laurel agrees with this, she hopes, like Sullivan, for more lasting fare, and notes that many investors have been burned by buying at the top after hope and hype carried a stock to the heights.
Vic's case might be summarized by these lyrics from Rudigore:
``If you want in the world to advance
Your merits you're bound to enhance
If you stir it and stump it
And blow your own trumpet
Or trust me you haven't a chance.''
To Laurel, he says:
``I think you had better succumb
On this subject I pray you be dumb.''
Laurel, on the other hand, is with the Mikado in thinking the punishment should fit the crime:
``The advertising quack who wearies
With tales of countless cures
His teeth, I've enacted,
Shall all be extracted
By terrified amateurs.''
But we both keep a sublime object in mind -- the most beautiful thing about the stock market is how it uncovers pockets of great potential in the economy where more capital can lead to satisfying an urgent unmet need of the consumers.
And so we are transmitting a list of stocks with cancer cures recommended as investments by our readers. Some of these readers have expertise in biotechnology, and their insights and reasoning, we believe, are highly worthy of your consideration.
However, in the spirit of an open arena in the search for knowledge, cures and investments, we have also thrown the column open to readers who are frankly interested in bringing their recommendations to your attention so that their own investments may soar and that the companies they are involved in will be able to conquer the disease faster. What's so terrible about that -- isn't that what the process of creative destruction that gives us what we want in proper qualities, quantities and time all about? Yes, but be careful that you don't contribute unduly to the destruction, particularly in your own wallet.
Few of the new biotech drugs for cancer are on the market. Several companies are working on ``tumor shrinkers'' -- or what medical researchers call angiogenesis inhibitors -- which work by interfering with cancer cells' ability to trick the body into growing new blood vessels to feed tumors. Some are focusing on techniques that would direct chemicals straight to cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.
And now that Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA - news) has almost completed the mapping of the human genome, a field called proteomics is growing as firms seek to take advantage of the new information by figuring out how protein production is controlled.
In accord with the ``Biotech is King'' meme that has periodically spread through the investment world, many of these cancer cure companies already have shown spectacular gains, and they may rotate to the heavens and below many times as the meme waxes and wanes. As one breakthrough follows another, investors will reach fever pitches of enthusiasm trying to catch the next rising star. Many will be disappointed. We will record these flights and falls by starting a cancer cure index and reporting results alongside our Linet picks, Longman picks and GEN picks in future columns.
(The list is sorted by year-to-date return.)
-- Proteome Sciences (PRM, trades in London) '\200'' Proteomics. Up 264%.
-- Myriad Genetics (Nasdaq:MYGN - news) '\200'' Licenses a technology to pharmaceutical companies for use in identifying novel proteins and their biochemical pathways which may lead to the development of new therapeutics. Up 214%.
-- Oxford Glycosciences (OGS, trades in London) '\200'' Proteomics. Up 190%.
-- Targeted Genetics (Nasdaq:TGEN - news) '\200'' Gene and cell therapy; viral and non-viral gene delivery systems. Up 189%.
-- Corixa (Nasdaq:CRXA - news) '\200'' Vaccines. Up 160%.
-- Qiagen (Nasdaq:QGENF - news) '\200'' Blaustein, the Brandeis University chemist, says his labs and most others he know have been using their ``kits'' for purifying DNA, RNA and proteins over the past five years, ``and we love them.'' Up 142%.
-- Medarex (Nasdaq:MEDX - news) '\200'' genetically engineers mice that produce human antibodies. Up 115%.
-- Geron (Nasdaq:GERN - news) '\200'' Partner with Celera on developing small-molecule pharmaceuticals and protein therapeutics. Holds patented technology on telemorase, which controls the death of cells. Up 134%.
-- Lorus Therapeutics (Nasdaq:LORFF - news) '\200'' Their lead product, Virulizin, is approved for treatment of melanoma in Mexico and scheduled for Phase III trial in the U.S. for pancreatic cancer. Chairman and CEO Philippe Lacaille left Biochem Pharma, developer of the approved HIV drug 3TC, three years ago to take this on. Up 125%.
-- Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq:HGSI - news) '\200'' Owns many gene patents; working on a ``tumor shrinker''; MPIF-1 aims to protect against adverse effects of chemo drugs used to treat breast and ovarian cancer patients. Up 93%.
-- ImmunoGen (Nasdaq:IMGN - news) '\200'' Designing a drug that aims to increase efficacy of chemo by delivering chemical directly to tumor. Up 70%.
-- Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA - news) '\200'' On verge of completing the historic achievement of mapping the human genome; moving into proteomics. Up 60%.
-- Avax (Nasdaq:AVXT - news) '\200'' Melanoma vaccine. Up 47%.
-- MedImmune (Nasdaq:MEDI - news) '\200'' Vaccines. Up 40%.
-- Axys Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:AXPH - news) '\200'' Small-molecule drugs. Up 31%.
-- Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ONXX - news) '\200'' Working on therapies to reverse effect of mutated genes known to cause cancer or kill the cancer cell. Up 28%.
-- Entremed (Nasdaq:ENMD - news) '\200'' Testing a tumor shrinker. Up 8%.
-- Ligand Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:LGND - news) '\200'' Sells two treatments for a rare form of lymphoma and a gel for Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer. Up 2%.
-- Burzynski Research Institute (Nasdaq:BZYR - news) '\200'' Phase II testing of antineoplastons, synthetically produced versions of peptides. In 1998 settlement with Texas attorney general, agreed to stop distributing unapproved drugs and advertising neoplastons as a cancer treatment. Down 30%.
-- Ciphergen Biosystems (CIPH, proposed) '\200'' Proteomics. (IPO pending) -- Large Scale Biology (LSBC, proposed) '\200'' Proteomics. (IPO pending)
Laurel Kenner is a financial writer in New York City. During her 16-year career, she has reported on police, politics and aerospace, and most recently headed US stock market coverage at Bloomberg News. At the time of this writing, Kenner was long Human Genome Sciences and Entremed.
Victor Niederhoffer is a private speculator specializing in futures and options trading. He formerly managed money and hedge funds, and had one of the best records until turmoil in Asian markets in 1997 caused financial disaster. He is the author of best-selling The Education of a Speculator. His hobbies include music, electricity, sports and ecology, all of which form a foundation for his scientific speculation. At the time of this writing, Niederhoffer was long Axys Pharmaceuticals.
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