Archive for July, 2016
Cytokinetics: Collaboration with Astellas is Expanded and Will Bring in $65 Million of Cash (CYTK, $10.45, Buy)
Overview of Expanded Collaboration Cytokinetics and Astellas announced on July 27th that they had expanded their collaboration for the development of products based on skeletal muscle activation. Cytokinetics has pioneered this very promising field and I believe has a commanding edge in the understanding of drug development based on this biology. The expansion has two […]
Galenica to Acquire Relypsa for $32 per Share (RLYP)
Galenica has announced a tender offer to acquire all shares of Relypsa for $32 per share which on a fully diluted share basis is $1.53 billion. The Boards of Directors of both Relypsa and Galenica have approved the terms of the merger agreement, and the Board of Directors of Relypsa has resolved to recommend that […]
A Non-Consensus, More Balanced Look at the CAR-T Development Efforts of Kite and Juno (Kite, $48.53: Juno, $30.42)
Definition of Key Terms Used in This Report Engineered Autologous T-cells (eACTS): These are T-cells that are removed from a patient and genetically engineered to increase their activity against cancer cells. They are then expanded into billions of clones that are reinfused into the patient where they continue to differentiate and attack cancer targets. Chimeric […]
Juno Therapeutics: FDA Quickly Lifts Its Clinical Hold on ROCKET
The FDA has decided to lift the clinical hold on the ROCKET trial. Lifting the hold is not a great surprise but the quick turnaround is. This is a strong signal from the FDA that it views the troublesome side effects of CAR-T therapy to be an acceptable risk when weighed against its dramatic therapeutic […]
Juno Therapeutics: Comments on Deaths in the ROCKET CAR-T Clinical Trial of JCAR-015(JUNO, $27.87)
Investment Perspective I have been watching Kite and Juno for nearly two years and have occasionally written on the companies. I am almost through with a report on Kite that should be published soon. As people who follow me know, I am very much attracted to potentially paradigm changing technologies like CAR-T and other related, […]