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Biotech / Medical : Munch-a-Biotech Today -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Miljenko Zuanic who wrote (3045)	3/5/2015 6:25:57 PM
From: Miljenko Zuanic	Respond to of 3158

BTW, how much is today Opdivo worth? What part of BMY MC is Opdivo, and how much will PFE pay for it? Cheers! Congrat to PCYC shareholder! I was skeptical about them from 1994, and never changed my view! Gese, was I wrong!

To: Miljenko Zuanic who wrote (3045)	3/6/2015 6:44:26 AM
From: Doc Bones	Respond to of 3158

FWIW - Jim Cramer obviously has a big audience - This was on Cramer's Thurs 3/5 Mad Money show. Part of his larger thesis: We are NOT in a bubble; well run companies may be undervalued. - Doc In the biotech space, Cramer highlighted Pharmacyclics (PCYC), which popped 10% on a takeover bid from Abbvie (ABBV), a stock which Cramer owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS. Pharmacyclics seemed like a bubble yesterday, up 88% so far this year, but today a smart company swooped in and took it to a whole new level. Could other Cramer faves like Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), Receptos (RCPT) or BioMarin (BMRN) be next? thestreet.com

To: Miljenko Zuanic who wrote (3045)	3/6/2015 4:49:01 PM
From: Doc Bones	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3158

PHARMALOT How Much Is One Cancer Drug Worth? By ED SILVERMAN March 6, 2015 When is a cancer treatment that generates less than $1 billion in annual sales worth $42 billion? The answer to this question is when a big drug maker wants to pony up big bucks for the biotech that sells the medicine. To what extent the price makes sense, however, is another matter. The big drug maker, in this instance, is AbbVie Inc., which agreed to pay $21 billion in a mix of cash and stock to buy Pharmacyclics Inc. and its Imbruvica medication for treating two blood cancers, a rare lymphoma and a form of leukemia. Imbruvica is a franchise product. It’s the only medicine that Pharmacyclics currently markets. Last year, in its first full year of sales, the drug generated revenue of $548 million. Wall Street believes the outlook for the drug is bright. RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee, for instance, forecasts $6 billion in peak global annual sales. But AbbVie won’t see all of the profits flowing from Imbruvica sales. Why? Pharmacyclics must split them with Johnson & Johnson , which has half the rights to Imbruvica and was one of three bidders for the biotech. This suggests Imbruvica sales would have to generate double the deal price for AbbVie to get its return, implying that Imbruvica is valued at $42 billion, according to Sanford Bernstein analyst Geoff Porges. For AbbVie, the deal is designed to lessen reliance on its Humira rheumatoid arthritis treatment, which notched $12.5 billion in sales and accounted for 62% of total revenue last year. The drug loses patent protection in 2018. AbbVie also hopes to leverage its existing pipeline of oncology drugs under development and, perhaps, create combinations. One possibility is pairing Imbruvica with a late-stage AbbVie drug that together in tests in mice showed promise in treating some blood cancers. The strategy may help explain why AbbVie executives were surprisingly bullish in a conference call with investors Thursday following the deal announcement. The AbbVie team implied Imbruvica would generate between $10 billion and $12 billion in annual peak world-wide sales. The projection is meeting with skepticism, though. There is certainly some logic behind the notion that adding Imbruvica to the AbbVie portfolio may create a domineering player in certain cancer treatments. But some analysts say AbbVie is overly optimistic about reaching $12 billion in Imbruvica sales, given the drug is still relatively new and will be competing in an increasingly crowded field. “They’re betting they can pick the winner for the Daytona 500 after just 50 laps with a very high degree of certainty,” says Mr. Porges. “You have to step back and ask about the probability of that happening in an era of rapid technological change and innovation. I think it’s a really risky presumption.” To some, the acquisition price suggests an air of desperation. After all, Johnson & Johnson already knows all there is to know about Imbruvica. “How else can you outbid the partner that knows the drug better than anybody and can get the most synergy from a deal?” asks Mr. Yee. Whether AbbVie overpaid remains to be seen. But the deal is a boon for biotech, because it underscores that big drug makers are willing to put premium values on any number of opportunities. WSJ