RGLS

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

What Gilead’s Patent Miscue Means for Shareholders

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Source: Gilead Sciences Corporate Fact Sheet (pdf) By Brian Nelson, CFA There’s nothing quite like market instincts. They can’t be taught from reading textbooks, in the classroom, in a valuation model, or even with years and years of experience. It’s the intangibles that sometimes count the most. When we removed Gilead (GILD) from the portfolio of the Best Ideas Newsletter, “Alerts: High-grading! GILD–>JNJ… (Jan 2016),” we just knew something wasn’t right. Sure the introduction of Merck’s (MRK) once-daily single-tablet combination therapy, Zepatier, a significantly less expensive therapy to Gilead’s prized hepatitis C franchise was one major concern at the time, but the market is often not this inefficient when valuing equities. Almost counterintuitively, it became worrisome to us that for … Read more

Key Treatment Momentum Drives Big Pharma

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The momentum of key drugs and treatments is often a solid indicator for the coming performance of a pharmaceutical firm. Growing competition and other market pressures out of a company’s control can often cause material ebbs and flows in financial performance, making a strong and stable pipeline necessary to sustained success. As we walk through the results from some of the biggest names in the pharmaceuticals industry, let’s get a feel for the trajectory of each firm’s drug portfolio and pipeline moving into the rest of 2016. AbbVie (ABBV) AbbVie reported a quarter of strong growth January 29, as adjusted net revenues jumped more than 24% on an operational basis, and GAAP net revenue increase more than 17% from the … Read more