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Is Antigenics a Good Buy Right Now?

AGEN has not initiated a confirmatory RCC study, I assume because they, in concert with FDA, continue to follow the original phase 3 cohort. The only enrolling oncophage study at present is at USCF for GB. Aroplatin, a liposomal platinum is now looking for a phase 1 center to evaluate pharmacokinetics. Garo Armen, the CEO, took the reins of a troubled Elan in 2002 after it got caught in its own detritus (cooking the books, failed AD vaccine development), and scaled it back down to a more viable enterprise. So I think AGEN is in good hands - any short term upside to its valuation rests, IMO, on what Russia does with oncophage. Garo is of Armenian heritage - I heard he has good alliances of interest in eastern Europe. Can Russia and its neighbors afford this treatment? That's another question. I would like to see Fredric Cohen weigh in on this, since he posted an especially erudite analysis on the RCC phase 3 results that caused the stock to tank last year.

Disclosure: I periodically own AGEN, CEGE, DNDN, am long EXEL

Cancer Stocks Hammered Once Again

Great post! It would be quite useful if your excel file could be downloaded, then someone could sort on other attributes, or even add some, e.g. #drugs in phase 3, total #drugs in pipeline, #big pharma collaborations, PADUFA dates, if any, etc. I'm offering a few comments vis-à-vis individual companies: I think EXEL, which probably has the deepest pipeline on your list, is gaining because investors believe Glaxo will take XL647. I believe it's, "show's over", for TELK (Telcyta is finito). Onyx is declining because it faces stiff competition from Pfizer's Sutent & now Wyeth's Torisol in renal cell carcinoma. Any sales increases for Onyx's Nexavar will come from off-label use in liver cancer, but that is not, in my opinion, a reason to invest. CEGE's recent decline is a gift - when European Revlimid sales appear on their balance sheet, along with clinical milestone press releases, it'll get back into the 60's. GNTA has been on a slippery slope for some time now - their CEO, Ray Warrell, is very smart, very committed, and held in high regard by his oncology peers at his alma mater, MSKCC. He is making use of FDA's dispute process for Genasense in CLL, so some investors are betting FDA will offer up a conditional approval in subsets of patients. The key here is that CLL is a very heterogeneous disease - therapy needs to be more individualized. Finally, in my opinion, ISRG is absolutely the future of surgery. Any decline into the low 130's is a bargain. Thanks again for your article!