ILLUMINA (ILMN): Illumina is approaching its 52-week high. We remind that around June/July 2011 the stock had reached for over $75 to be badly hit because of fear of the bad economy and dwarfing of the healthcare budget, which was relevant. The stock had reached as low as the mid-twenties. At the time we believed this price was an invitation to buy the stock. As a matter of fact ILMN jumped overnight from around $30 to over $50 following Roche's offer to buy the firm.
We also remind that this firm is still on top of the manufacturer of gene analyzers and the most active and productive from among the group we call "The Genomic Group" together with Life Technologies (LIFE).
As we said before, Illumina enables the continued revolution of treatments and is currently leading the way towards personalized medicine.
Rumors about Roche renewing its offering have caused a tremendous increase in ILMN's call option volume. The fact is that, Roche or no Roche, Illumina remains the cornerstone of the pharmaceutical revolution.
SAREPTA (SRPT): We agree with analysts who believe that this firm's drug eteplirsen for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. should be approved. The key word here is safety and the drug seems safe. We agree also that the FDA has its own rules and regulations regarding accelerated approvals of drugs. But we also believe there is substantial need for such a drug right now. Based on the proof of concept of Sarepta RNA-derived treatments, a novel difficult technology, and the drug's positive results on a disease as dangerous and crippling as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, we feel good about the drug and the firm.
Data, indeed, exist that the drug increases the level of dystrophin, which offers the proof of concept towards the fact that the molecules could bring hope to the hopeless
