Cancer Vaccines and CEO's Record May Lift Dendreon to Healthy Gains
By Helen Jung, WSJ 8/23
Can Christopher Henney work his magic a third time?
The co-founder of biotechnology stars Immunex and Icos is now chief executive officer of Dendreon, a little-known, would-be marketer of a cancer vaccine that has no profits and no sales. One of dozens of U.S. biotech companies racing to discover the ultimate cancer booster, Dendreon's stock is trading at $15.375, 31% off its high of $22.25, set just last month.
But some stock watchers say there's a lot to like about this Seattle-based company -- besides Dr. Henney, who formerly was head of immunology for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and the experienced management team he leads. Results from recent trials of a prostate-cancer therapeutic vaccine are promising. And Dendreon has four other vaccines in the works aimed at seven other cancers. (Therapeutic vaccines seek to treat diseases, as opposed to the more common vaccines that are designed to prevent them.)
"The thing could be gigantic," says Paul Latta, an analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle, who rates the stock a "buy," though he offers no price target. "The thing about biotechs is that when they work, they really work."
Investors' best bets in biotech are with companies like Dendreon, which is focusing on manipulating the immune system to trigger attacks on cancer cells. That approach is why Tom Dietz, managing director of San Francisco-based Pacific Growth Equities, has a 12-month price target of $34 in Dendreon's stock and rates it a "buy."
And for Dr. Dietz, the person in the CEO's chair is as important as the work going on in Dendreon's laboratories. "People are betting as much on Chris Henney as on his technology," he says.
snip<>
Jim |
