What a week! And there's still one day left.
Human Genome Sciences and Orexigen got the party started on Monday with their Lupus and diet drug data, respectively.
Onyx Pharmaceuticals was a surprise guest with its mid-stage breast cancer results on Wednesday.
Bristol-Myers Squibb cranked up the volume late yesterday with its two-bagger for Medarex. And then this morning Celgene announced it had stopped a multiple myeloma study early because the drug appears to be working so well.
If there was ever any doubt, that's fast-building critical mass and proof positive of how drug data and deals move biopharma stocks.
Investors are busy throwing money today at a whole bunch of other small biopharma companies. Dr. Mark Monane at Needham & Company put out a research note to clients titled, "What Exit? NJ Company BMS Acquires NJ Company Medarex--Who Will Be Next? Who Do I Want To Share My (Jersey Shore) Beach Blanket With?" For those who aren't familiar with driving in the Garden State, people from Jersey always ask, "What exit?" when they need to know the number of a turnpike offramp to take. It's a Jersey thing. I'm from Cali where we only refer to freeways by their numbers. And the Jersey Shore is where a lot of folks around here go for the summer. They call it, "Down da shore."
Anyway, I digress.
Dr. Monane devised his own criteria and scoring system to try to identify the most likely takeout or partnership targets.
By his calculations Seattle Genetics and Regeneron are the only two in his coverage universe to score a perfect four out of four. Needham makes a market in REGN and SGEN, has banked Seattle Gen and wants to do it again.
Big pharma has tens of billions of dollars worth of brand-name drugs going generic over the next several years. It doesn't have enough new drugs in its pipeline to replace them. But it does have a lot of cash money. And biotech's got the goods. As Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Jim Cornelius, who by the way has never done a TV interview since taking over the company, said on the company's conference call this morning, "A plus or minus two billion dollar deal is digestable. We will continue to look at things. Those that are three to four times the size of that we'd have to find extreme value in there. But I wouldn't rule that out."
Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
Biopharma Bonanza
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