BMRN

Valuentum’s 3 Breakthroughs in the Field of Finance and More

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Valuentum’s President Brian Nelson pauses for a picture before speaking at the CFA Society of Houston in March 2017. By Valuentum Editorial Staff Let’s cover Valuentum’s 3 major breakthroughs in the field of finance. The first one is big and may challenge you to rethink everything you think you know about investing. 1. On a logical framework, Valuentum has debunked John C. Bogle’s landmark syllogism that has paved the way for the concept of index investing. Index investing has been built on a logical shortcoming, whether supported by evidence or not. We think it is important that the investment community know of this. Read (pdf): The “Luck” and “Randomness” of Index Funds (2018), Brian Nelson, CFA See video documentation: /FALLACY_of_Index_Funds To … Read more

Three Notable Pending FDA Approvals

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Image Source: Brandon Giesbrecht The final step of the drug approval process is the filing of a new drug application (NDA), when the FDA assesses trial results before deciding if the treatment warrants marketing approval. A delay or rejection can have a meaningful impact on the equity price, so let’s dig into a few notable upcoming decisions. By Alexander J. Poulos and Kris Rosemann Baricitinib Baricitinib is a Janus Kinase 1&2 inhibitor that is being studied for the treatment of a wide range of inflammatory diseases, and clinical trials for the indication of rheumatoid arthritis conclusively demonstrated superiority to placebo–and Humira. The superiority to Humira, in our view, is a key differentiator in the crowded inflammatory disease market, a direct result … Read more

Can Vertex Pharmaceuticals Dominate the Race to Treat Cystic Fibrosis?

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Tickerized for holdings in the XLV and IBB. Cystic Fibrosis is a rare disease that afflicts an estimated seventy-five thousand patients worldwide. Vertex Pharmaceuticals is the first to market with a combination treatment to treat a portion of the overall patient population. Will Vertex win the race to bring forth a triple therapy to treat the vast majority of those afflicted? By Alexander J. Poulos Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a recessive genetic disorder. The patient that is afflicted will carry two copies of the cystic fibrosis conductance regulator protein (CFTR) gene. The CFTR gene allows the body to produce the CFTR protein, whose function is to remove chloride from the cells. Patients that have CF will suffer from a “thickening” … Read more

Pharma, Biotech and How to Consider Investing In It

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The Valuentum analyst team digs deep into recent trends in big pharma and biotech from the lofty pricing of drugs to political and competitive pressures to ETF considerations and beyond. ~10 mins. If you cannot view the podcast below, please view the transcript below or select the link here. Tickerized for holdings in the XLV and IBB. Brian Nelson, CFA Gilead’s (GILD) hepatitis C regimen, almost a hundred thousand dollars. Vertex’s (VRTX) cystic fibrosis drug — hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Have the drug companies lost their mind? This is Brian Nelson from Valuentum Securities, and today joining me is Mr. Kris Rosemann and Mr. Chris Araos — and we are going to talk everything healthcare, biotech… Mr. … Read more

Attention to Pricing Issues Pressures Valeant

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As recently as early August, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) was flying high, continuing its history of aggressively pursuing acquisitions and profiting greatly from newly-acquired drugs. However, exactly what had allowed the firm to grow at a substantial pace has caused a precipitous fall in its share price and may cause significant pressure to the biotech industry (IBB) as a whole in the relatively-near future, or so some are positing. Valeant has a reputation for growing through acquisitions and aggressively cutting costs during the integration of newly-acquired companies. Through the acquisitions of other biotech and pharmaceutical companies, Valeant becomes the owners of various drugs, of which it then has control over pricing. This is where the company, in the eyes of some … Read more

Big Pharma Round Up

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Though much has been made about the patent cliff—shorthand for the expiration of the patents of a large number of drugs over a short period of time—we continue to believe that pipelines across much of the pharmaceutical space are flush with new drugs and therapies. Readers may have an individual favorite or two (or three) within the space (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but we think one of the best ways for investors to play the strong pipelines across the healthcare sector—and ongoing consolidation—is through the Health Care Select SPDR ETF (XLV), a holding in the Best Ideas portfolio. The ETF boasts Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer (PFE), Merck (MRK), Gilead Sciences (GILD), and AbbVie (ABBV) as its top … Read more

Valuentum Economic Castleâ„¢ Rating Update

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Read: Keeping the Horse Before the Cart: Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ Rating The Economic Castle Focuses on the Magnitude of Economic Value Creation The Valuentum Economic Castle™ rating is an enhancement of the competitive advantage framework (commonly known as economic moat analysis) that has become widespread and ubiquitous within the investing world. Whereas an economic moat framework evaluates a firm on the basis of the sustainability and durability of its competitive advantages, Valuentum’s Economic Castle™ rating evaluates a firm on the basis of the firm’s future economic profit spread (return on invested capital less its weighted average cost of capital). The companies with the strongest Valuentum Economic Castle™ ratings are poised to generate the most economic value for shareholders in the … Read more

Surveying Fourth Quarter Earnings at Health Care Firms

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The broader equity markets have been under pressure for much of January, and while it may be tempting to consider completely exiting stock investing for a time, we’re staying the course with both of our actively-managed portfolios. We had been expecting a contraction in price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples across the broader market (see our outlook here), and the performance thus far in 2014 has not been surprising. In case you may have missed it, I sent out some very important thoughts over the weekend to keep in mind as uncertainty and volatility increase through the course of 2014: Stay focused on @Valuentum portfolio holdings (best ideas), #asset allocation (cash) in portfolios and #prudence in allocating new capital. — Brian Nelson, CFA … Read more

ASCO Reveals That Big Pharma Is Alive

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This weekend, the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) kicked off in Chicago. The theme this year? Immunotherapy. The conference is traditionally littered with news from biotech companies revealing results from clinical studies, but this year’s event also included some news from big phama companies that haven’t been bursting with pipeline breakthroughs in years. Let’s take a look at some of the news out of the event. Firms Highlighted: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen, Galena Biopharma, BioMarin, Celgene. Bristol-Myers Squibb Source: BMY ASOC 2013 Presentation Bristol-Myers Squibb (click ticker for report: ) isn’t exactly what we’d call an under-appreciated company. Over the past year, shares are up 43%. However, this year’s ASCO only further ignited the fire. The company … Read more

Nelson: The 16 Most Important Steps To Understand The Stock Market

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A previous version of this article appeared on our website July 21, 2013. Refreshed and updated throughout, as of July 2018. By Brian Nelson, CFA After earning my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and training stock and credit analysts from large organizations over the past decade or so, I have heard just about every question (though I admit I am still surprised by many things and remain a very humble student of the markets). I’ve also spent years perfecting the discounted cash flow process for large research organizations such as Morningstar and studied under one of the most famed aggressive growth investors of all time, Richard Driehaus. My knowledge runs the gamut from value through … Read more