With the U.S. economy growing at an anemic 2 percent, there's one industry that does not have iron poor blood. Niche markets within the larger vitamin and supplement industry are on fire, with some reaching double-digit growth. Although the overall supplements market has been affected by the sluggish economy and occasional regulation issues, it continues to outpace the economy, with hot offerings such as antioxidants and fish oil getting major boosts every time a news story or afternoon doctors' show gives them a thumbs-up.

Right now there are no companies with a dominating position in this industry, making it something of a wild-west for investors, a little like the computer software industry twenty years ago. Any time a new company comes along with a new approach, it can grab market share by the fistfuls.

As usual, one of the big factors in the growth of any industry is its relation

The biotech group, as represented by the NYSE ARCA Biotech Index (BTK) fell 4.4% for the week, and is down by a third since its highs just six months ago. The following is our analysis of the big news and price moves in the biotech group last week.

Dendreon Corp. (DNDN): DNDN develops targeted therapeutics to treat cancer using active immunotherapies, monoclonal antibodies and small molecules. Among investor circles, it is probably best known as the maker of Provenge® for Prostate Cancer. After a crippling over 80% loss recently triggered by back-to-back disaster quarter reports for Q2 and Q3, the stock finally got an uptick last week, up on four of the five trading days for a cumulative 15.0% gain on heavier than normal volume.

In fact, the stock was temporarily halted on Wednesday as regulators scrambled to find out what caused the price to jump abruptly at mid-day. While

We have broken down the investing activities of mega funds in the biotech group by small-cap biotech companies in this article, and by mid- and large-cap biotech companies in another article that can be soon accessed from our author page. This is because small-cap biotech companies generally have no commercial products, but rather a pipeline of product candidates being tested in early- to late-stage clinical trials for a variety of disease conditions. This contrasts with mid and large-cap biotech companies that generally have products in the marketplace that generate revenues and in many cases the companies have reached sustained profitability. Furthermore, the small-cap biotech companies are speculative by definition, with potential revenues often being many years in the future, and hence they attract a less risk-averse investor. Mid- and large-cap biotech companies in contrast often are more attractive to conservative investors that look for revenues and sustained profitability in constructing

Small cap biotech companies generally have no commercial products, but rather a pipeline of product candidates being tested in early- to late-stage clinical trials for a variety of disease conditions. This contrasts with mid and large cap biotech companies, that generally have products in the marketplace that generate revenues, and in many cases the companies have reached sustained profitability. Furthermore, the small-cap biotech companies are speculative by definition, with potential revenues often being many years in the future, and hence they attract a less risk-averse investor.

Mid and large cap biotech companies, in contrast, often are more attractive to conservative investors that look for revenues and sustained profitability in constructing their value thesis. Hence, we have broken down the companies in the biotech group into these two categories, in discussing the investments of legendary or guru fund managers in the biotech industry.

In this article, we identify small cap biotech

Buy Cardium Therapeutics (CXM): CXM operates via its portfolio companies, Tissue Repair Company and Cardium Biologics, and its in-house MedPodium healthy lifestyle product platform. Its lead product candidates include Excellagen topical gel for wound care management, and Generx DNA-based angiogenic biologic for patients with coronary artery disease. Its shares were up a whopping 231% on Monday on news that it received 510(k) clearance from the FDA to market and sell its new Excellagen professional-use, sterile, syringe-based advanced wound care product for the management of diabetic foot ulcers and other dermal wounds.

The incidence of diabetes is rapidly increasing in the U.S. and worldwide, with an estimated 300 million people estimated to have the disease by 2025. Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the most common complications of diabetes, and it is estimated that in the U.S. about 1.3 million people will develop these wounds. Furthermore, it is estimated that

In a previous article, How to Maneuver the Biotech Sector, I mentioned how FDA approvals can lead to a very wealthy short term portfolio. I also discussed how biotech stocks with a strong pipeline can lead to long term growth that beats the S&P.

However, I will now follow up on those ideas with a warning to investors: Even if the FDA does not act upon an NDA in a timely manner, a company can be stuck with a financial struggle. Which leads to a company being in the dark as to what to do. For instance, companies plan on marketing a product promptly after submitting a New Drug Application, NDA, or an FDA 510(k), which is for products that already exist in the market, or are being reintroduced. Now is a good time to apply this to Cardium Therapeutics (CXM) and Lannett (LCI), since both are currently facing this

A common strategy used by many investors is to buy a basket of several small or micro-cap companies (generally less than $1 billion market cap stocks) with pending binary events (e.g. FDA decision or clinical trial results) approximately 3-6 months ahead of the expected catalyst date and sell into the expected upward momentum in both stock price and trading volume.

The goal of this bio run-up strategy is to greatly reduce the risk of investment losses by taking profits ahead of the binary event by capitalizing on the expected increase in both stock price and volume as more short-term momentum and day traders become active, which typically occurs at about 2-3 weeks out from the catalyst date and results in extreme price volatility and intraday swings. Click on the preceding link for a website describing this strategy in greater detail and click here for a link to a YouTube video

On 10/14/09, Progenics Pharma (NASDAQ: PGNX) announced a deal with Wyeth (WYE) to re-acquire all of the worldwide rights to the RELISTOR franchise after a one-year transition period. RELISTOR (subcutaneous injection) is the only drug approved to treat opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in patients with advanced illness receiving palliative care. PGNX will aggressively continue development to expand the utility of both subcutaneous and oral RELISTOR into a new population for patients with chronic pain who experience OIC.

On 8/4/09, Wyeth and PGNX announced submission of a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the FDA and an Extension Application to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for RELISTOR (methylnaltrexone bromide) subcutaneous injection for a new delivery system, pre-filled syringes. RELISTOR was approved last year in single-use vials. RELISTOR is indicated for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in patients with advanced illness who are receiving palliative care, when response to laxative therapy has

Below is a summary of updates to the BioMedReports.com FDA Calendar, which includes a database of 284 entries as of 7/28/09. The calendar was originally created by Mike Havrilla to track companies with pending new drug, biological agent, or medical device new product decisions at the FDA. With the launch of BioMedReports.com, the FDA Calendar has expanded to include the following categories: pending new submissions to the FDA (e.g. NDA, BLA, 510k, PMA, sNDA, sBLA filings), pending complete response letter (CRL) re-submissions to the FDA, and pending late-stage clinical trial results.

On 2/20/09, Schering-Plough (SGP) resubmitted its Saphris (asenapine) sublingual tablets NDA in response to the FDA's complete response letter from January 2009 for the acute treatment of schizophrenia in adults and for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder in adults as monotherapy. An FDA Advisory Panel meeting is scheduled for 7/30/09 and