Prohost Letter #438 End of the Year Issue  2019 Happy New Year 2020 The NASDAQ reached 9000 for the first time in the market history on December 30, 2019. However, on the last trading day of 2019, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 8,945.99 after giving back 60.62 points or 0.7%. During the departed year, however, the stock exchange was boosted by the outperformance of …

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 Week in Review #4 AMAZING STOCK REBOUNDING - We have already witnessed and wrote about the fierce rebounding of some of our selected stocks comprising: Exelixis (EXEL), Sangamo (SGMO), Array (ARRY), ImmunoGen (IMGN) and others . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Xoma (XOMA) stock rallied surprising many but not all. We put this firm in a special table called aggressive portfolio where we put of firms with strong scientific and technological fundamentals that, for bad reasons, or trials and errors reasons have underperformed. With all its past history where past management’s sins overshadowed its science and scientists’ obvious clear capabilities, we never kicked XOMA out of …

Prohost Letter #404 Part 2 Synthetic Biology (2) A Brief History DNA is the software of life. This is how Synthetic Genomics firm, which we believe is now is the leading biotech firm for applied synthetic biology. Synthetic Genomics is still a private firm in spite of that thousands of investors are impatiently waiting for it to turn public and it will. So stay tuned. …

XOMA Establishes Proof-of-Concept for 358 in Congenital Hyperinsulinism and Hypoglycemia Post-Bariatric Surgery Congenital Hyperinsulinism Phase 2 study completed and multi-dose study protocol approved in the United Kingdom. Xoma initiates multi-dose study in hypoglycemic Post-Bariatric Surgery patients The NEWS A few days ago, Xoma announced news about trial results that the firm believes were promising and successful in establishing proof-of-concept for its . . . This …

Xoma’s (XOMA) webcast and conference call scheduled for September 15, 2016, at 1:30 p.m. PDT (4:30 p.m. EDT) is important and should be interesting to the firm’s shareholders. The conference call will provide an update on what’s going on in the Phase 2 trial of XOMA 358, the firm’s drug, which aims at treating congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) and hypoglycemia post-bariatric surgery (PBS). The Drug and …

AMGEN Repatha is the human monoclonal antibody that blocks a protein called proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), which binds to PCSK9 and inhibits circulating PCSK9 from binding to the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (LDLR). The binding  prevents PCSK9-mediated LDLR degradation, permitting LDLR to recycle back to the liver cell surface. By inhibiting the binding of PCSK9 to LDLR, Repatha increases the number of LDLRs …

The Diagnosed Dead Is Far from Dying Xoma (XOMA): Stock rallied following report announcing an upfront payment from Novartis, which multiplied the firm’s revenues 10 times over 2014. Novartis paid Xoma $37 million, Novo Nordisk paid $5 million and Pfizer paid the firm a little less than $4 million. CEO John Varian said, “Novel antibodies and technologies created by XOMA scientists to target diseases such as …

Agenus (AGEN) is a project in the making since the firm has decided to play an integral part in immuno-oncology, doing everything possible towards building checkpoint modulator antibodies, in addition to its protective and therapeutic vaccines. Missing analysts’ expectation by one cent, which leads to stocks’ punishment has become an accepted routine, satisfying daily traders and other investors. The substance, however, which  interests us, is in …

XOMA Announces License Agreement with Novo Nordisk for XMetA Program in Diabetes – Novo Nordisk acquires exclusive global rights to XMetA program, but for diabetes only, while XOMA  retains commercialization rights for rare disease indications – $5.0 million upfront payment. But the agreement includes up to $290.0 million in additional potential milestone payments – XOMA is entitled to tiered royalties XOMA (XOMA) announced it has …

– Exclusively licenses global rights to its (TGFb) antibody program to Novartis  – Could the lucrative agreement spare Xoma the pain of raising money for developing its programs, or filing bankruptcy?  – Reasons to believe that Xoma’s TGFb therapeutic antibodies might become another cancer immunotherapy used alone or in combination with immune checkpoint protein inhibitors such as PD-1 inhibitors, which are considered game changers in …

Why the financing through a secondary public offering was a must for Exelixis. The outcome of the public offering is putting in Exelixis’ (EXEL) coffers around $128 million, which we know the firm will definitely need for the development of its programs, but more important, is for the firm to be able to meet its obligations in case the FDA approves its drug cobimetinib combination with …

Prohost Letter #379 Investors Concerns, Excitments and Expectations It is understandable the fact that bullish and bearish analysts have opposite opinions (opposite wishes too) on biotech firms’ pipelines products and clinical trial results. They differ in assessing important news and in applying different criteria in their evaluation in order to establish proof of concept of their personal views. Articles are filling the media with contradicting …

Prohost Letter #378 Part 2 2015 ASCO ANNUAL MEETING What a Big Revolution in Oncology! The ASCO meeting projected the huge advancement in the understanding, diagnosing and treating cancer. What looked as if a sudden explosion has brought in the big change, the change was, in fact a slow, deep-rooted evolution, built up over a long period of trial and error with the failures constituting …

Xoma (XOMA) announced good news from Phase 3 EYEGUARD-B trial of its monoclonal antibody drug gevokizumab for Behcet’s uveitis. The study, which is sponsored by Xoma’s development partner Servier, reached its target exacerbation event as specified in the study design. The objective of the first part of this study is to demonstrate the superiority of gevokizumab, inreducing the risk of Behcet’s disease uveitis exacerbation and …