Expert Financial Analysis and Reporting

Investment Perspective With the failure of its biotechnology drug candidate aclerastide, Derma Sciences is abandoning drug development efforts. The Company has also signaled that it will slowly be phasing out of its Traditional Would Care (TWC) business which is based on commodity products including compression products, adhesive strips, impregnated dressings, wound closure and gauze. It […]

Derma Sciences announced preliminary sales results for 2014 of $83.7 million which represents a 5% increase over 2013. This was lower than guidance announced on November 10, 2014 that 2014 sales would approach $85.0 million. It was sharply lower than guidance given on January 16, 2014 that 2014 sales would reach $92.0 million, which would […]

Derma Sciences released second quarter results this morning and this is my quick take. I will have a more detailed update later after the conference call.  The results were disappointing relative to my expectations. Advanced wound care products were up only 11% versus my expectations of 30%. Traditional wound care products were up 18%, which […]

Price Target Thinking In my initiation report of January 31, 2014, I argued for a 2018 price target of $20 to $27 under the assumption that DSC-127, their new drug for wound healing, fails in phase 3 and development is abandoned. In this event, the valuation of the Company would be based on its attractive […]

Investment Perspective in Brief I am re-iterating my Buy recommendation on Derma Sciences (DSCI) as I believe that it presents an unusual and attractive biotechnology investment situation. DSC-127 is in a phase 3 trial for diabetic foot ulcers with topline results expected in early 2016. If successful in this trial I think that its sales […]

This Has Been a Tough Correction The recent sharp market correction and rotation out of growth stocks like biotechnology and technology has had a major impact on the small biotechnology names that I specialize in. The correction has been stomach churning for me even though I have been through this many times before. I am […]

Investment Thesis I published an extensive report on Derma Sciences (DSCI) on January 31, 2014 in which I recommended purchase. I argued in that report that DSCI presents an unusual and attractive biotechnology investment situation. We are all aware of the binary outcomes of critical phase 3 trials in which a successful outcome usually leads […]

I have found that there are some very smart people out there who have interesting questions and perspectives concerning my articles. I periodically share with subscribers questions asked of me and my response. Also, some subscribers have a different perspective or additional insights beyond mine that I find informative. Sharing this information is the purpose […]

Investment Perspective in Brief Derma Sciences presents an unusual and attractive biotechnology investment situation. We are all aware of the binary outcomes of critical phase III trials in which a successful outcome usually leads to a dramatic increase in stock price (perhaps several fold), but failure can lead to a 50% or greater decrease in […]

What SmithOnStocks Is All About It is traditional at the start of the year to go over stock picks for the coming year. It also is the time of the annual biotech “love in” in San Francisco, which I recently attended and that attracts some 30,000 biotech executives, analysts, venture capitalists and investors. I estimate […]