Best Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now


Background:

To begin this article, let’s take a trip back to July 27th. AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) investors received the worst possible news with the news headline “AstraZeneca lung cancer immunotherapy trial failure sends shares plunging” effectively summing everything up. Shares absolutely were sent “plunging”, wiping off 10B pounds in value, the sharpest drop that the company has EVER had:

Was this drop a complete overreaction? Well, I’d say so. The MYSTIC trial was testing the immuno-oncology drug Imfinzi to further survival in lung-cancer patients rather than use chemotherapy. You may be wondering why one failed drug trial would hurt an established, tenured pharma giant. Sure, it makes sense when a biotech and small-cap pharma soars 20% or more on positive data readouts and approvals, and tanks 20% or more when there is a poor readout of regulatory roadblocks. Those companies generally do not have the capital to continue funding further operations, and were relying on their prospective treatment to further their tenure in the industry. So again, why would a company with a market cap of over $73B and cash & cash equivalents of over $5B drop the way it did? The answer lies in the IO market, and its sheer size. According to the Telegraph, the Immuno-Oncology market is valued at $8B today, and is expected to reach $50B later on. According to PMR’s latest report, the market size is supposed to reach around $27B by the year 2025. After taking this all into effect, it makes sense why AZN took the tumble it did. Lung cancer treatment is one of the biggest unmet needs in medicine, and the failure of Imfinzi in its largest trial absolutely crushed the prospects of the company breaking out a blockbuster, innovative drug. This created a ripple effect in the industry, with Merck shares moving higher as they solidified their position in lung cancer treatment. Bristol Meyers reacted in the negative, as they are testing the potential combination of Opdivo and Yervoy for their own IO trial study.

Best Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ALNY)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Brian Orelli]

    Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) jumped as much as 14.5% today after announcing earnings after the bell yesterday. As a development-stage biotech, it wasn’t the revenue or the earnings that caused the spike, but the progression of Allnylam’s pipeline.

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) shares shot up 53 percent to $114.87 after the company impressed investors with encouraging data from a phase 3 clinical trial. Alnylam, a company dedicated towards treating a wide range of debilitating diseases through ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference (RNAi) therapeutics, said after Tuesday's market close that a phase 3 study called APOLLO met its primary efficacy endpoint and all secondary endpoints.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Yesterday, after markets closed, it was announced that US Federal District Court Judge Sue Robinson ruled to issue a permanent injunction against Praluent, the PCSK9 mAb for hypercholesterolemia from partners Regeneron and Sanofi, due to infringement of patents from Amgen. The court has imposed a 30-day suspension (stay) on the injunction to allow for settlement or appeal of the District Court decision. Sanofi and Regeneron have announced their intent to appeal the ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The injunction decision is consistent with our counter-consensus published views communicated on 25 January 2016 (“Downgrade to Sell on evidence of likely infringement of Amgen’s PCSK9 patents”) and subsequently. Based on consultation with expert legal counsel, we now put >75% probability Amgen will prevail on appeal and/or Praluent is ultimately removed from the US market, and/or Amgen achieves a settlement substantially in its favor. We currently model $3.3 bn in non-risk-adjusted 2022E US revenues for Praluent, while consensus models $1.2 bn in 2022E US revenues. We reiterate our view from 25 January 2016 to preferentially own Amgen, The Medicines Company (MDCO) (Buy), and Alnylam (ALNY) (Buy) over Regeneron for exposure to PCSK9 inhibitor market dynamics as outcomes trials approach.

  • [By Chris Dier-Scalise]

    On Thursday, the Vetr crowd downgraded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) from 4.5 stars (Strong Buy), which was issued two days ago, to 3.5 stars (Hold). Crowd sentiment for Alnylam at the time of the downgrade was edging positive, with 66 percent of Vetr user rating bullish.

  • [By Cory Renauer]

    Treating diseases that have a genetic component by altering the expression of the responsible genes is a promising new field of medicine, but it has been much less straightforward than biopharmaceutical companies had expected. Two contenders in this area, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS), saw a mix of setbacks and success in 2016.

Best Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: Amgen Inc.(AMGN)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Biotech stocks have been particularly unloved during the past year, with the iShares Nasdaq Biotech Index ETF (IBB) gaining just 7% to the S&P 500′s 20% rise. Today, however, Amgen (AMGN) is getting a lot of love from the market after releasing Street beating earnings and reporting that its anti-cholesterol drug reduced heart attacks.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Three biotech stocks–Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN), Amgen (AMGN), and Celgene (CELG)–reported earnings since yesterday’s close. But just one has seen its shares head higher after the announcement.

  • [By Todd Shriber, ETF Professor]

    Several big-name biotech companies step into the earnings confessional starting in the middle of the week, with Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Anthem Inc (NYSE: ANTM), and Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) among the companies in play. That could bring opportunity with the  Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: LABU) and the Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: LABD).

  • [By Chris Lange]

    Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) saw a handy gain to close out the week after the company won a Delaware court ruling that blocked Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) from selling their cholesterol-lowering drug in the United States. Essentially the court found that the drug Praluent actually infringed upon Amgens patents for its rival treatment Repatha.

  • [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

    Finally on Friday, Tiffany (TIF) reports, and Cramer is betting on positive news now that the company has an activist involved. He was also bullish on Amgen’s (AMGN) analyst meeting, saying investors should use any market weakness earlier in the week to buy.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    What do I mean? Regeneron’s dropped 14% during the last three months, the result of a patent suit with Amgen(AMGN) over its anti-cholesterol drug Praluent, which a judge had set it wouldn’t be able to sell in the U.S.Then last night, there was finally good news: Ajudge ordered a stay, which would allow Regeneron to sell Praluent, and resulted in a 2% pop in its shares last night after the market close. But then Regeneron reported earnings, and while profits of $3.04 cents a share metthe Street consensus, Regeneron missed on sales and offered disappointing guidance. That caused Regeneron shares to sink 2.1% in pre-open trading.

Best Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ARIA)


Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Healthcare shares gained around 0.73 percent in trading on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA), and VCA Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF).

Best Biotech Stocks To Buy Right Now: Medivation Inc.(MDVN)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Scott Rubin]

    Big gainers on the day included Intersil Corp (NASDAQ: ISIL), which jumped 20 percent on news of a buyout, and Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN), which added 20 percent on a deal with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) related to its cancer drug. Cotiviti Holdings Inc (NYSE: COTV) lost around 9 percent in the wake of a mid-day sell-off and Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO) fell 7 percent in the wake of a management shakeup.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Well, it looks like Medivation (MDVN) now has five suitors after reports that Amgen (AMGN) is joining Pfizer (PFE), Sanofi (SNY), AstraZeneca (AZN) and Novartis (NVS) in considering a bid. Maxim’s Jason Kolbert and Jason McCarthy offer their thoughts:

    Medivation reports tonight at 4:30pm…

    We expect the focus to be on the recent proposals from Sanofi (SNY $38.75- NR); Pfizer (PFE $33.40 -NR), AstraZeneca (AZN $28.26-NR) and just today, Amgen (AMGN – $154.18 – NR)…


    Medivation is returning to new highs as suitors line up to make acquisition bids. In this scenario what is the right discount rate for modeling purposes?

    We believe our model for Xtandi revenues is good, therefore we review our risk rating and determine the following: 30% = $47 15% = $76 10% = $99

    With Medivation’s board having now said No to anything less than $65 per share, it suggests to us that the stability and predictability of Xtandi’s revenues is greater than we thought, the risk is lower. Our intermediate risk rating is 15% or $76 fair value.


    Shares of Medivation rose 0.3% to $59.22 today, while Pfizer gained 0.5% to $33.56, Sanofi fell 0.5% to $39.07, AstraZeneca dropped 0.6% to $39.07, Novartis declined 0.3% to $74.12, and Amgen ticked up 0.1% to $154.25.

     

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Last night, Bloomberg reported that Sanofi (SNY) had made a bid for Medivation (MDVN) but had been rebuffed, while noting that other companies–perhaps Gilead Sciences (GILD), Amgen (AMGN) or AstraZeneca (AZN)?–were also on the prowl. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey’s Peter Lawson explains why Medivation might be biotech’s most wanted:

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Macro considerations have continued to weigh on stocks whenever they’ve shown signs of life and consensus estimates for many of the large cap companies have been declining. With the sector’s underperformance, the delta in the average PEG ratio for biotech growth companies (excluding Medivation (MDVN)) compared to non-biotech growth companies is slightly wider than it’s been for most of the year. As such, we remain constructive on the sector. That said, while valuations are attractive on a relative basis, there remains some uncertainty for the group and we would not be surprised to see the volatility continue…

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Benzinga's newsdesk monitors options activity to notice unusual patterns. These large volume (and often out of the money) trades were initially published intraday in Benzinga Professional . These trades were placed during Friday's regular session.

    PACCAR Inc (NASDAQ: PCAR) Aug16 52.5 Puts: 10000 @ ASK $1.70: 10k traded vs 335 OI: Earnings 7/26 $54.94 Ref
    Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: REGN) Jul16 345 Puts: 949 @ ASK $8.70: 1003 traded vs 55 OI: Earnings 8/2 $360.20 Ref
    NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) Fri 6/24 47.0 Puts (Wkly) Sweep: 689 @ ASK $1.12: 3758 traded vs 136 OI: Earnings 8/4 $46.69 Ref
    Medivation Inc (NASDAQ: MDVN) Sep16 55.0 Puts: 4000 @ Above Ask! $3.40: 5303 traded vs 716 OI: Earnings 8/4 $59.44 Ref
    Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ: EXPD) Aug16 47.0 Puts Sweep: 950 @ ASK $1.35: 973 traded vs 381 OI: Earnings 8/2 $48.15 Ref

    Posted-In: Huge Put PurchasesNews Options Markets

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Medivation Inc (NASDAQ: MDVN) is said to have spurned recent takeover approach from France’s Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE: SNY), according to sources as reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday. Sanofi wants Medivation’s treatments for hard-to-cure cancers, the sources said. Medivation shares surged 8.46 percent to $49.60 in the after-hours trading session, while Sanofi shares fell 0.59 percent to $42.02 in after-hours trading.

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