SPECIAL REPORT
MOST SHARED
- Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager
- With or Without Euro, Europe Must Raise Its Game
- Labor Board Member Resigns Over Leak to GOP Allies
- Why German, UK Bond Yields Will Go Even Lower
- Italy 2-Year Borrowing Costs at Peak Since December
- Greek Party Leading Polls Pledges 'Business-Friendly' Country
- Southern Europeans Wire Cash to Safer North
- Olive Oil Price Dip Adds to European Woes
- TNK-BP CEO Resigned for 'Personal Reasons': BP
- Newedge to Leave Greek Stock Market
- A New Look at the ‘New Poor’
- Six Pack: Beer Buzz of the Week
- Greek Exit Could Trigger 50% Fall in Euro Stocks: Analyst
- Under Pressure, FHA Skews to Wealthier Home Buyers
- Big Stock Upside for Hudson City Deal: Analyst
- 5 High-Yield Stocks Ready to Boost Dividends
- Yoshikami: Four Things You Need to Know About Gold Now
- Steinbock: The Euro Zone Endgame Begins
- Option Bulls Take Another Shot on Idenix
- Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager
- Main Players in the Greek Election
- Italy 2-Year Borrowing Costs at Peak Since December
- Euro Bond Wins Supporters, but Details Remain Vague
- German, UK Bond Yields Will Go Even Lower
- Labor Board Member Resigns Over Leak to GOP Allies
- Loan Scheme Launches for Youth Business Start-Ups
- Southern Europeans Wire Cash to Safer North
- With or Without Euro, Europe Must Raise Its Game
RSS FEED
Pharma's Market
Text Size 
Johnson & Johnson Goes To Cougar Town
 |
Photo by: Harlequeen Cougar |
And so is Johnson & Johnson's journey into "Cougar Town."
Last night the drug, medical device and consumer products behemoth announced it's buying Cougar Biotechnology for nearly a billion bucks. CGRB has a prostate cancer treatment in late-stage development. It's not a huge amount of cash for a company the size of JNJ [JNJ
Loading...
()
], but it's still a decent-sized gamble on a drug that as at least a couple of analysts have been quick to point out has not yet shown a holy-grail "overall survival" benefit.
And isn't it poetic that Cougar Biotech [CGRB
Loading...
()
] is based (where else?) in la-la land? On the company's homepage there's a picture of a real cougar...as in the animal. So, I guess someone who started the company had something for cougars. Just out of curiosity that's one of the questions I probably would've asked the CEO, but through a spokesperson Cougar isn't doing any media today. We would've put him on live sometime around the opening bell. Why wouldn't the CEO of a little biotech that is selling his company for a 16 percent premium (bigger if you measure the takeout price against the stock's recent run-up) want to come on CNBC and take a well-deserved victory lap? They suggested the possibility of interviewing him at the upcoming ASCO conference when CGRB's data are coming out, but even though the results might be clinically meaningful, from an investment perspective they'll be meaningless. The newsy stock story is today. Not a week-and-a-half from now. Before the deal was announced we had plans to book Cougar's CEO for a live interview from ASCO on CNBC's "Fast Money" because Melissa Lee, the traders and I have good fun "playing around" with the company's name and, of course, as evidenced by JNJ's deal it's a developmental drug story worthy of attention.
Oddly, when I went to Cougar's website this morning, more than 12 hours after the acquisition announcement, the press release wasn't even there. But you can find it at JNJ's website.
That and CGRB's decline of our invitation to come on our air today tells me JNJ is the cougar here.
Questions? Comments? and follow me on Twitter at mhuckman
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
