Continuing with reasons for contest picks:
(7) Cor Therapeutics (CORR), developing cardiovascular therapeutics. First to market is Integrilin (partnered with SGP), an anti-blood clotting agent, FDA-approved a few months ago for both unstable angina and angioplasty, unlike its competition, Merck's more expensive Aggrastat, approved only for unstable angina, and Centocor's ReoPro, approved only for angioplasty. Integrilin sales probably about to accelerate; also, several interesting cardiovascular therapeutics in the pipeline. CORR seems very cheap at these levels and due for a bounce.
(8) Chiron (CHIR), one of the first biotechs to develop into a major pharma company, has been in the doldrums for a couple of years, now a turnaround story. Of its dozens of commercialized products, many were low-margin diagnostics. The new CEO has just sold the diagnostics division for $1.3 Billion plus some future payments, is refocusing the company on higher margin therapeutics, and with the huge pot of cash may buy some advanced-development stage biotech companies or license their most promising products.
(9) Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM). A local Ann Arbor company, ASTM has developed a proprietary system, Replicell, for multiplying stem cells, for bone marrow transplants and a variety of other patient-specific cell therapies. The product has just been approved for marketing in Europe, and FDA approval is hoped for in a year or so. 13D shareholders include Pfizer and the Kaufman fund. ASTM thread on SI Subject 14049 is mostly crowded with momentum traders, but has a few participants trying to do serious due diligence.
(10) For the tenth, I'll join TexasDude on LGND. It may finally go up reasonably and stay there, with two products on the verge of FDA approval (one, Ontak, possibly worth serious money), the promise of Targretin breast cancer trial results this year, and other pipeline compounds for later.
Obviously I've done more detailed work on some of the above than on others, but am comfortable enough with all ten to own them (I now own eight, and have been looking for entry points, both for the other two and to add to positions in some of the others, as I did with AXPH yesterday). But I hope participants will point out the defects in the reasoning outlined above, and generally further my education.
Disclaimer, disclaimer. All of the above is, of course, my own opinion: nobody should invest a real dollar in any of these without doing his or her own research; all of the above are risky, in varying degrees, and you could lose your shirt. But this stuff is great fun, and very profitable when you get it right.
-- RCM |
