A startup Biotech company is evaluated primarily by products in the pipeline. GERN’s current well publicized trial is dealing with using stem cells to treat patients with spinal cord injuries so they can regain mobility. Don’t get me wrong, if GERN is successful with their stem cell technology it will be a game changer for the company and medicine. Keeping that in mind, one has to remember all the other products in their pipeline. By reviewing their website and reading the SEC quarterly filings one could easily determine the other products that they are working on.
Buying shares of GERN will get you exposure to all of the products in the pipeline, not just the stem cell trials. With these other items comes the benefits and costs associated with the attempt to bring each to market.
Geron product chart
On top of what is in the pipeline, one has to consider where it is in the pipeline. Development of drugs and technologies can take years to come to fruition. This article will not attempt to explain all the inner workings of the FDA and its approval process, but once again the websites and SEC filings often times give a clue as to estimated completion dates. In the cash burn section below one will see how this becomes an important piece of information when deciding when to buy or sell a stock.
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ImmunoGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMGN), a biotechnology company focused on developing cancer drugs, saw its stock climb 22 percent on news that its potential therapy for breast cancer achieved positive phase 2 trial results. The results showed that that this new experimental therapy could potentially be more effective than a combination of Herceptin and chemotherapy, which is the current standard of care for many HER2-positive breast cancer patients.
The Waltham, Mass.-based biotech’s partner, Swiss drug maker Roche AG (Swiss: RO.SW ), said that T-DM1, a combination of a cancer cell-killing agent developed by Immunogen and Herceptin, developed by Cal.-based Genentech, now owned by Roche, showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival, over the combination of Herceptin plus chemotherapy.
“This top-line information about T-DM1’s performance in the first-line setting is very encouraging and adds to the favorable efficacy and safety data reported across a number of T-DM1 studies. We look forward to learning the detailed data when they are reported at a medical conference,” ImmunoGen CEO Daniel Junius said in a statement.
On Friday, IMGN closed at $12.12, where as last Friday it was trading at $9.00.
Magellan Energy New (MGLG.PK) looks like neck deep in trouble. There seems to be no escape from the continuing problems faced by the corporation. Company is traded in OTC under the symbol MGLG.PK.
Almost a year before company released information on its Lankford Lease. The Lankford Lease, comprising of 11 producing wells, is located on the Chattanooga Shale. A recent report on the Chattanooga shale reserve potential confirms the Company’s own due diligence and its subsequent participation in the project with its partner, TMD Energy.
On September 3, 2009, company informs that a high BTU situation don’t allow for continuous natural gas production. In late 2008, the federal government, through the agency FERC, mandated that any gas with a BTU count higher than 1100 was unsafe and should not be transported in interstate pipelines or sold to consumers. Gas originating from oil wells usually has a high BTU count, and this is especially true in the Burville area where the Anderson and Martin wells are located. As a result, Magellan, as well as many other area producers, had their wells shut in by Citizens Gas for a protracted period of time. Following this announcement, the share price dropped to all time low of $0.0001. At this rate one can by 1 million shares for $100.00.
To add the misery, the MGLG is listed as one of the companies allegedly hijacked by some nice gentle man. They are approaching the deadline to submit paperwork on this issue. Hopefully some decision will be made soon and the trading will be back to normal.
However there is a ray of hope in this situation. A potentially huge consumer of natural gas in Tennesee has come to the forefront with TVA’s announcement that a natural gas-fired electric plant in Rogersville is scheduled to come online in late 2011 and will require up to 160 million cubic feet of natural gas daily. Tennessee is now producing about 16 million cubic feet of gas, but has immense potential to produce a great deal more, with the most potential coming from the Chattanooga Shale. Magellan and other area producers stand to benefit greatly from this enormous new demand source. TVA is the nation’s largest public power provider and is completely self-financing. TVA provides power to large industries and 158 power distributors that serve approximately 9 million people in seven southeastern states.
According to the EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2009, U.S dependence on imported oil is expected to decline over the next 25 years — due to high prices and limited resources; and natural gas production, led by gas shales, is expected to provide the majority of growth in gas supply. As the economy improves, we should see a marked improvement in the price of natural gas and in the overall value of the Chattanooga Shale gas reserves.
To cap it up: Magellan Energy New can look forward to do well if and only if, they could come out of the court battle and TVA is in a position to use high BTU gas for the new plant. For the time being no considerable investment is recommended in this stock. However for a gambler, it may be an opportunity to buy at the bottom now.
Now Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc’s Silenor is approved by the FDA and SOMX is planning to market the medicine. For that they issued 6million shares for a total of $49.5 million, making the total outstanding shares to 30million. Currently SOMX is trading at $8.8 .
Now is it the right price for the share? If you are planning to sell SOMX, is it the right time to do that.
Take the case of HGSI. On FDA approval HGSI shares moved from $3.00 to $12.00. Many were happy and sold the shares for a good profit. That was 9 months back. Now HGSI is trading over $30.00. Those who picked up the shares 9 months back is getting 150% profits with out much risk. Those who brought the shares before FDA approval were risking their hard earned money with out any guarantee for returns. Those who invested after the FDA approval gained over 150% with out much risk.
Is the HGSI story going to repeat here for SOMX. After the approval of Silenor, SOMEX jumped to $9.00 and it is still dancing around the same level.
Advantages of Silenor:
- No Abuse Potential: Unlike most of the existing insomnia drugs including Ambien and Ambien CR from SNY and Lunesta from SEPR, which are classified as Schedule IV drugs by the DEA due to the abuse potential and tolerance problems associated with them, Silenor appears to be safe, without any abuse potential and is likely to be categorized as a non-scheduled drug by the DEA.
- Sleep Onset and Sleep Maintenance Activity: Rozerem from TKPHF, an approved insomnia drug, has been classified as a non-scheduled drug. However, this drug is only approved for patients, who have difficulty in getting sleep and not for the maintenance of sleep. On the other hand, Silenor is expected to be classified as a non-scheduled insomnia drug for the maintenance of sleep.
It is said that this drug has approximately Approximately $2 billion market in the US. These are enough reasons to make your buy or sell decision. It is strange that, you were holding it when there was high risk involved, but want to sell these now.
Losing Money in Stocks?
Are you making enough profit from stock market. Or you are losing on daytrading stocks? Are you the one who jump on any stock and later regret it? There some people, who always do the right thng at the right time. For them investing is always successful. If you are not one of them, if you are not making enough profit from stock market, read thisa carefully. Is your investing strategy right? How are you getting the leads for investing in stock market?
Still if you can make it, stock market is not for you. I don’t recommend loosing all your hard earned money in stocks. If you are hit hard two or three times, then don’t try to makeup the loss. My humble advise, of you are not comfortable at , don’t do it. Don’t waste your hard earned money, just because your friend or relative made a killing in the stock market.
Top Reasons for Losing Money in Stock Market
- Buying or selling strictly based on Entertainment shows like Cramer’s – Cramer has a tendency to make many picks and recommendations, studies have shown his picks to be both right and wrong about 50% of the time. The Cramer show should be appreciated for it’s humor and entertainment value.
- Investigate for buying, weather the company has a usable product, or likely to come with a usable product in the near future.
- Incase of Penny Stock there are so many people floating shell company and remains as a shell company for so many years. the fact is that they make a living by that. They periodically bump the stocks with nice press release, and sell the shares. Then they start buy back as the price go down. This is a cyclic process, and they make lots of money in the process.
- Buying a stock because it “looks cheap.” – The share price of a stock should not be a determining factor when buying stocks. A $5 stock is no cheaper than a $15 stock. If both stocks go up 15%, you gain that same percentage in both stocks. (works same way with losses also).
- Investing is like fishing. When there is fish on the net grab it.
- Falling in love with a stock – Too many investors fall in love with a stock and refuse to close out of it even when the writing is on the wall. A stock should be treated as an investment and if that investment turns sour, one should get out of it as fast as possible. Just remember no stock remains a hot stock to buy forever.
- Following the masses – All too often a person would just buy a hot stock because they see everyone else buying and feel that it cannot go down. This type of investor often ends up being the “bag holder.” They are left holding the bag when the stock turns sour and the price drops.
- Spam messages – Buying a stock from an email that you received recommending the stock is one of the worst way to invest. Usually these stocks are penny stocks that have little or no value and will end up going belly up at some point. Do not buy stocks from spam emails, it’s a negative gamble. Over my years of investing, I have never seen a profitable stock that was recommended by a spam message.
- Buying a stock without Due Diligence – Research and Research! Buying the next hot stock requires you do proper diligence or it can be a flop that leads to a loss. It’s a good idea to get tips from sites like Hot Stocks to Buy but it’s very important that you do your own due diligence prior to any purchase. This has to be one of the major reasons why investors lose money in the stock market. Always perform due diligence before putting your hard earned money into any investment. The goal of investing in stocks is to take the guessing and gambling factor out of the equation.