Update-3 10/20…China  Phase 1 deal stalled -curbs strong momentum in biopharma.

  • Amarin (AMRN) getting beat up by an Oppenheimer skeptic who thinks Vascepa growth will be tepid.
  • Despite tape slowing many stocks saw huge gains: ASND NKTR SRPT etc.
  • Per comment on 10/18 RNAi area heating up on Medicines Company buyout rumor and ALNY FDA approval of GIVLAARI for acute hepatic porphyria (AHP), with stock up 10.5% to $108 level. MRNA up over 4%.
  • Large caps weak with ABBV down 2%.

Update-2. 10/19….  10:30 am EST …Big mid-cap moves on deal potential-XBI up 2.75% to $87.36. There are plenty of trading opportunities in biopharma today.

Update -1  10/18…. some nice movers in biopharma today:

  • Gene Therapy: CRSP at 52 week highs up 2.92% today; NTLA up 2.26%.
  • Karuna Therapeutics (KRTX) catapults 443% to $96 on Phase 2 results for schizophrenia that met its primary endpoint; proposes public offering of 2.6M shares.
  • Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (DRNA) soars 10.83% to $21.39 on broad deal with Novo Nordisk on RNAi Therapies for Liver Related Cardio-Metabolic diseases. Other RNAi plays also inch up ALNY MDCO MRNA.
  • Look for strength in XBI assuming small cap deal making is underway through Q4.

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Healthcare Stocks Breakout even as of Medical Costs Soar

As we wrote in early October it was time to ignore all the political posturing about drug prices and revolutionary plans for healthcare reform. Healthcare stocks are domestic plays and could be a haven from geopolitical turmoil and slowing global growth. We  felt large cap biopharma stocks were beaten-up but still offered modest growth and with dividends. It paid to overweight healthcare and medtech stocks as over the past month as Bothe sectors are outperforming NASDAQ and other major indices. Only tech stocks (XLK) have comparable performance recently.

Biotech Sectors for the Month and Week : No breakout yet.

IBB up 8.2%, week up 1.2% to $111.50,

XBI up 6.5%, 1.5% to $84.79

Notable biopharma weekly winners in our portfolios:

Amarin (AMRN) up 46.55%.

CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP up 8.8% to $56.87.

Moderna (MRNA) up 7.5% to $19.35

Large cap biopharma  stocks at new 52 week highs: AMGN BMY CELG MRK RHHBY VRTX

Mid-cap biopharma stocks at or near new 52 weeks highs : ALNY BGNE  INCY NBIX SGEN

Healthcare Sector for the Week and Month:

XLV up 6.5%, 2.13% to $97.46

IHI up 4.7%, 1.98% to $256.36:   IHF up 3.5%, 4.8% to $190.84 XHE up 6.5%, 2.5%.

UNH was up 10.6% for the month and 6.3% over the past 5 days. The IHF iShares Healthcare Providers ETF was flat to down in 2019. The move up coincided with the good October jobs report and healthcare has been adding jobs continuously.

Notable healthcare and medtech winners of the month: ABT BSX DHR ISRG  MDT TDOC

Fidelity Select Medical Technology Portfolio (FSMEX) is up 23.4 % YTD and 19.29% annualized over 3 years.

Healthcare is currently 15.8% of the S&P and  Information Technology is at 19.9%.

 

 

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