Cancer Stocks Soar With Annual ASCO Meeting

Cancer-related stocks soared during the holiday-shortened week as presentations began on June 1st at the ASCO annual meeting in Chicago.

Last week’s big winner, Bioenvision (BIVN), received an offer from partner Genzyme (GENZ) at a disappointing premium but well ahead of multi-year lows reached in early May.

The list below is comprised of domestic companies primarily with market caps in excess of $50mm, ranked by the return this past week.

If the reader believes that there are erroneous inclusions or exclusions, feel free to let me know.

Click to enlarge

As one can see, 19 of the 89 stocks, or over 20%, produced double-digit returns, with just one double-digit decline. The average return of 5.1% was 3.7% ahead of the S&P 500, while the median of 2.0% was ahead of the market as well. Looking at the one big loser, Inovio (INO), shares pulled back after reaching a 52 week high in the prior week. The stock remains in a solid uptrend and held the 3.52 level at which they sold stock in Mid-May. The company specializes in vaccine delivery technology as well as electro-chemotherapy (MedPulser).

5 stocks rallied in excess of 20%, including Novacea (NOVC), which cut a deal with partner Schering-Plough (SGP) to develop a late-stage prostate cancer treatment. The stock surged on the week despite pulling back a couple of points on downgrades. Vion (VION) bounced back a bit after getting clobbered in the prior week (ended an AML trial). Dendreon (DNDN) surged on news that the FDA would accept partial data (perhaps shortening time to market). Peregrine (PPHM) rallied from close to a 52-week low but remained below the declining 200dma as it reported data from a Phase 1b trial. Finally, Poniard (PARD), which is developing a next-generation platinum agent, surged on Phase 1 data as well. The stock looks very strong technically, moving to a 52 week high on its highest volume ever.

Disclosure: Author is long ISRG

Comments

[Mr Mister]

Your table is too over-crowded to be useful. Next time skip the industry, HQ city and state as it is meaningless except for job seekers. Nice try though.