The Week in Review #48 Holiday Edition ******************** Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! We Wish You a Happy New Year Filled with Excellent Health, Peace of Mind, Prosperity and Happiness What a Year for Biotechnology What happened in the biotech sector toward the end of 2019 is briefed in this Review as we focus on the performance of our picked firms’ stocks’ prices. We will …

The Market May be Plummeting But Prohost Picks are Not Biotech stocks had a strong start, but the gains disappeared in many stocks as the market demonstrated bearishness following a long-lasting rally. Currently, during the strong economic conditions, commentators attribute the reasons for the market’s upside and downside moves to China’s positive, or negative ongoing negotiations rather than to fair correction of overbought or oversold …

Prohost Letter #437 An All Time High Market More Prohost Picks Have Reached the 2019 Targets The stock market performance has reached an all-time high with more of our picks reaching or nearing the Prohost 2019 price targets. There are stories to tell about some devastated stocks which many believed were dead and buried but were surprisingly resurrected, and their stocks are going up. Another …

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics Rallied Today Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) and CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) announced positive, interim data from the first two patients with severe hemoglobinopathies treated with the investigational CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing therapy CTX001 in ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trials. A patient with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT) received CTX001 in the first quarter of 2019. Data for this patient reflect nine months of safety and efficacy follow-up. …

The Week in Review #44 Quarterly Financial Results What Was Seen and What Was Ignored History and self-experiences enabled investors to expect and swallow biased reactions following the announcements of the biotech sector’s firms’ quarterly results. Investors have long been expecting negative reactions towards small development-stage biotech firms following the announcement of their quarterly financial results. What they did not expect is for the same …

RegenxBio Rebounding RegenxBio (RGNX) has the viral vectors which could safely deliver genes into the cells. The firm has improved the adeno-associated viruses making them safe and effective gene delivery vehicles. One of the three currently approved gene therapy products, Zolgensma® for pediatric spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), marketed by Novartis, used RegenxBio’s adeno-associated . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to …

Migraine's Really Effective Treatments The years 2018 and 2019 could be called the years of migraine’s really effective treatments. Three Calcitonin-gene-related peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibody drugs have been approved in 2018 and 2019. They are: Aimovig for Amgen (AMGN . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Diseases of the Back of the Eye Diseases of the back of the eye, such as: age-related wet macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema, are currently managed with injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drugs into the gel-like substance (the vitreous humor) that fills the eye between the lens and the retina. The currently used age-related wet macular degeneration injections are: Lucentis, which belongs …

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Is Acquiring Semma Therapeutics Vertex Pharmaceutical (VRTX) entered into a definitive agreement to buy a private company, Semma Therapeutics. Semma uses stem cell-derived human islets as a potential cure for type 1 diabetes. Semma’s major scientific advances include: an ability to produce large quantities of functional human pancreatic beta cells that could . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe …

Gene Therapy Stocks Experiencing Selloffs  Every investor in the biotech sector must have experienced selloffs of the stocks from companies specialized in gene therapy, gene editing, antisense, RNAi and mRNA therapies. Recently, bluebird bio’s (BLUE) stock was devastated. The selloffs occurred for many reasons, most of . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

AstraZeneca: Farxiga for Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction  AstraZeneca (AZN) has good news. Many of them are extremely positive. However, the firm’s stock is still struggling to get this pharmaceutical company out of the oversold territory where it has been living since the beginning of the year.    Among the recent good news came the results from a Phase 3 trial using AstraZeneca’s SGLT2 inhibitor …

Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics While some groups are doubting the gene editing capability of CRISPR gene editing Vertex’s (VRTX) scientists enjoyed what they experienced during their clinical collaboration with CRISPR Therapeutics (

CRISPR Therapeutics' (CRSP) stock added around $8 today while reporting financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2018. Here is what Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics, has stated,“This past year was truly transformational for CRISPR Therapeutics as we achieved milestones across our key programs in β-thalassemia, sickle cell disease and immuno-oncology. We’re pleased with the progress we’ve made in …

Earlier this month the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track Designation for CTX001 for sickle cell disease (SCD). CTX001 is in clinical trials conducted by CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX). It is an investigational, autologous, gene-edited hematopoietic stem cell therapy for patients suffering from severe hemoglobinopathies. The FDA’s Fast Track program is designed to facilitate the development and expedite the review of drugs to …

Amgen Higher Dividends For those who invest in top-tier biotech firms for dividend payments, in addition to the firms’ continued growth, Amgen (AMGN) announced last Friday that its Board of Directors declared a $1.45 per share dividend for the first quarter of 2019. The dividend will be paid on March 8, 2019 to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 15, 2019. This represents …

Prohost Letter #425 When Common Sense Fails to Explain the Market Performance It is not unusual for the stock market to be in a selloff mood for a few days. However, in the last couple of months, the market unexpectedly plunged deep into the ocean of the unknown. The exaggerated volatility was nerve-wracking for professional analysts. This is especially true for candid analysts who base …

Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ triple combination, which added the corrector VX-659 to the tezacaftor and ivacaftor combination, resulted in statistically significant improvements in lung function (percent predicted forced expiratory volume in one second, or ppFEV1) in two Phase 3 studies in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). Data from Vertex’s (VRTX) Phase 3 study in people with one F508del mutation and one minimal function mutation resulted in a mean absolute …

Yesterday, the Stock Market skyrocketed and with it a significant number of Prohost Picks that we keep reminding ourselves are undervalued. The outperformance unveiled the interred strength of firms such as: Illumina (ILMN), Amgen (AMGN) and Vertex (VRTX), the gene therapy firms: RegenxBio (RGNX) and Spark (ONCE), and the gene editing firms: Crispr (CRSP), Intellia (NTLA) and Editas (EDIT), as well as others in the Prohost Portfolio. The rebounding in the …

The Week in Review #32 POSITIVE NEWS PROTEOSTASIS THERAPEUTICS Cystic Fibrosis Two days ago, a clinical-­stage small firm called Proteostasis Therapeutics (PTI) announced positive preliminary results from ongoing Phase 1 cystic fibrosis studies. The trial involved the firm’s proprietary combination therapy doublet, PTI-­808 + PTI-­801...

Prohost Letter #424 Following the Stars Less Science and More Logic We reiterate that while a human star is born every once in a while on Earth, several stars born daily in research labs may be designated every other day by the FDA and other health regulatory agencies around the world. These agencies call these potential stars’ breakthrough drugs, but not all the molecules designated …