Progenics Pharmaceuticals: New Front in War Against Cancer

Investors’ bearish sentiment that further testing of the clinical utility of Progenics Pharma’s (PGNX-$5.00) PSMA-ADC might be pointless due to toxicity concerns is unfounded: Robert Israel, MD, one of the study authors and executive vice president of medical affairs at Progenics, pointed out to Medscape Medical News that both of the patients who died had predisposing conditions.

"One had an indwelling central line [known to increase risk of developing sepsis] and the other had repeated urinary tract infections," said Dr. Israel. "The patients were also heavily pretreated and didn't have much in the way of other options."

As a new class of biological therapeutics, the ADC market is still in its infancy. Nonetheless, skeptics might want to spend a Saturday reading up on the managed benefits of these highly potent drugs in the context of understood off-target toxicities.

See more at YCharts: 2 Deaths, 25% Plunge -- And Still A BigUpside

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy. 

The New Old Yahoo Under Marissa Mayer

Yahoo (YHOO-$38.23) continues to fall further behind Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) in organic growth for inquiring eyes (and potential customer dollars). In June 2012, the respective share of the U.S. search engine market held by Google, Bing and Yahoo stood at 66.8%, 15.6%, and 13%; data released by comScore for December 2013 showed Google and Microsoft continue gaining voice at Yahoo’s expense: Google and Microsoft expanded their market shares to 67.3% and 18.2% -- while during Mayer’s tenure, Yahoo’s market has fallen further to a 10.8% share.

Revenue slumped for the fourth consecutive quarter at Yahoo, dipping 6% to $1.27 billion in the last three months of 2013, led by a similar 6% decline in all-important display-ad sales to $491 million (as a price-per-ad decline of 7% offset a 3% increase in total number of ads).

Read more at YCharts: The Cards Marissa Mayer Is Holding at Yahoo

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy. 

Lobbying Momentum to Drive Pharmacyclics Success?

In addition to hard science, lobbying momentum could be another catalyst driving sales of Pharmacyclics (PCYC-$131.38) new blood cancer drug Imbruvica significantly higher in coming years. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), which is an alliance of leading global cancer centers, issues recommendation protocols reflecting the consensus standard-of-care practices in oncology. Irrespective of formal FDA regulatory approval, an NCCN endorsement can be highly determinative of which therapies are reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and private insurers in a given indication. In other words, forget ICD-9 diagnostics codes.

In addition to the formally approved indication of relapsed/refractory MCL, updated NCCN guidelines now already recommend Imbruvica for the “off-label” treatment of refractory and relapsed CLL and other NHL subtypes, according to JMS Securities. 

See more at YCharts: Pharmacyclics: FactsBehind $10B Market Cap

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.