Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Hansen Medical, Gilead Sciences, and Biogen Idec

Well I'm having a good day, with Hansen Medical (HNSN) up almost $0.22 to $1.45 at the moment, and Inovio (INO) up $0.21 to 2.08. These were minor positions for me given their risks, but large percentage moves can turn a minor position into a major one, which is why I am always looking for good micro-cap stocks, but never have more than 3 or 4 in my portfolio.

Hansen has actually been doing quite badly until today. I was going to write an article "Hansen still has a pulse" based on preliminary Q2 results in which they again sold only a couple of robotic surgery systems. But today they got a very large cash infusion, showing some powerful investors believe sales are just around the corner, or that Philips or Intuitive Surgical or someone might buy the company for its IP.

Overnight the editors at Seeking Alpha posted my Gilead Sciences Hepatitis C Approval May Be Factored In. I sound wishy-washy in giving a value to Gilead or dissing it or recommending it, but that is because no one knows where the price will be set for the new therapies. The execs at Gilead probably have some ideas, but they are not talking. And they should not, until they get FDA approval. When they announce prices to the medical community the stock price will adjust accordingly as all we analysts plug the therapy price into our spreadsheets. As a citizen I hope the price is low, because the government (we taxpayers) will be footing the bill. As an investor, not so much. In any case actually having a cure (for most patients) is going to cut down on the long-term costs from hepatitis C damage. Then again, if you don't die of liver failure you have to die of something, and whatever it is the doctors and pharmaceutical companies will want to get what they can out of that tragedy.

I still hope to get to Biogen Idec today. This afternoon Microchip (MCHP) will be reporting, so I'll be taking and posting notes on that conference.

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