in4thelonghaul

Where the Big Money Is Betting Big

It would seem logical that there would be greatly increasing money flows into gold as either a safe haven play or reinflation play; a lot of the sidelined and resectoring flows are headed into other commodities besides gold though. As the investing class//and tutes realize that the so called green shoots of recovery were in reality an accumulation of mold forming...we can expect money to concentrate into commodities which are in shortest supply. If the world economies, in general, aren't really recovering and oil//gas inventories are increasing..then it seems that the oil angle can only go so far - about as far as it has gone recently. Just about everyone realizes that there are powerful forces which have a vested interest in keeping a lid on the price of gold...question is, how long will they be successful? It will take panic to lever the gold price out of the hands of the manipulators...possibly China/Japan divesting the dollar or refusing to buy our debt, dollar abandonment as the reserve currency, or the ever more likely scenario of the U.S. having its credit rating lowered. Once the tipping point arrives, all money...smart, big, retail, all becomes scared money and will likely flood into gold. At that point, the price of golod will finally achieve its realistic value...likely exploding upwards towards $2,000. per oz. in a matter of weeks; fortunes will be made by those who have positioned themselves ahead of the run. My best bet is on AUY, though I wonder if it will receive a takeout offer before all hell breaks loose. But then lots of highly intelligent individuals are talking of shorting gold and going long energy and agriculture instead. One thing is almost certain, the U.S. dollar is headed for a devestating crash.

Dendreon Troubles Beyond Provenge Test

After reading your pathetic and absurdly illogical critique of Dendreon's Provenge, denigrating its commercial viability...I have to conclude you are just another badly bruised short, as it is hard to believe anyone can be truly as stupid as you sound in your article.

Provenge has demonstrated superiority in efficacy and side-effect profile by a wide margin in 3 phase-3 trials. It is obvious to any intelligent and unbiased observer (you are obviously excluded here), that Provenge represents an extreme financial threat to the multi-billion dollar chemo dynasties of the giant pharmaceutical corporations which make such extreme profit from promoting cheap, higthly dangerous and relatively ineffective chemicals (not all of course) as cancer treatments.

Get used to it pal...Dendreon's technology has been validated and a new age is upon us. BTW...all indications are that active immunotherapies such as Provenge work better the sooner in the disease process they are used, and their efficacy is almost certainly greatly enhanced by the timely use of a "booster" infusion. Provenge is vastly superior to Taxotere, which is a truly dangerous and minimally effective treatment for end-stage prostate cancer when used as a mono-therapy. Some Provenge recipients from the earlier phase-3 trials are still alive over 7 years later!

You are on the wrong side of this issue, and I suspect your agenda blinds you to not only the facts regarding Provenge, but also your responsibility for honest communication which all decent human beings share...go back and do some serious research before spouting off next time.

Long DNDN because it is vastly superior to the current SOC.

Johnson & Johnson Is the Latest FDA Casualty

Thanks Mike for your efforts...

A sad indictment of American society that a small group of beaurocrats have achieved such a level of power as to actually dictate matters of life and death by denying potentially life-extending treatments to the terminally ill on the absurd pretext that such are not fully proven effective and might possibly be harmful!! Matters are worse by magnitudes thanks to the captured regulators of congress who have wholly abdigated their lawful role of oversight, as the American 'sheeple' silently accept the outrageous with barely a peep of protest by the vast majority of mainstream media or the courts of last resort.

Americans have been slowly boiled...inculcated and brainwashed to the point that they will tolerate quietly almost any outrage; to think our forefathers resorted violent revolution on a pretext so much more mundane than what we routinely accept with the most pathetic whimpers.

With luck, Obama will appoint an FDA Commissioner with sufficient humanity, integrity, insight, and will, to thoroughly sweep out the institutionalized filth which has found such a comfortable abode at the upper echelons of the FDA; we will know soon enough.

Dendreon's Provenge: Government Agencies Play Hide and Seek With Facts

Outstanding effort to right a terrible wrong. The FDA is a totally corrupt organization which has escaped proper oversight and accountability for many many years. Thank God that some group has finally stood up and is at least exposing them.

PCa patients are suffering and dying needlessly while a far safer and proven superior treatment is sidelined for years by these fools at the FDA. I honestly think the term "wicked" is one which most aptly describes these government scum.

They have stolen hope and life itself. These FDA officials are criminals of the worst sort and should, in truth, be brought up on criminal charges.

Dendreon: The FDA's Commissioner Doth Protest Too Much!

FDA Commissioner Andy is obviously a shill and a liar to boot.

Provenge has demonstrated repeatedly that it is both far far safer and has superior efficacy over any FDA approved treatment for end-stage prostate cancer.

Yet the FDA claims that Overall Survival is the Gold Standard!!

Andy...you are a contemptable disgrace. You will stand before your Creator with the blood of the innocent staining your conscience and those same souls will condemn you for what you have wrought.

You had the power to speak for those who had no acceptable alternative; instead you allowed their last hope to be stolen.

Sooner or later, probably when Dendreon gets a CEO with some vision, Provenge will be approved...if not in the U.S., then in Europe. Its efficacy will be evident to the world soon thereafter.

Dendreon: Provenge's Shortcomings Have the Shorts Coming

zukor....your contention that FDA will issue an "approvable" letter is absurd. Haven't you been paying attention? Those members of the Advisory Panel chosen by CBER voted overwhelmingly for "efficacy" on 3/29. It will be that same CBER which will make the final decision soon regarding Provenge. Walldiver has already indicated in his rebuttal that well over 90% of FDA final decisions go along with the advisory panel recommendations. Are you aware that it was the FDA which "corrected" the efficacy question at the advisory panel, so it would conform to published FDA guidelines?

Provenge treatment has achieved a 300% increase in overall survival measured at 3 years, with only the mildest of short term "flu-like" symptoms. By the way, some Provenge recipients from the original trial are still alive...7 years later!! Imagine what can be achieved when those receiving the Provenge treatment also have "booster" infusions incorporated into their treatment regimen at 18 to 24 months.

So, let's see, by your reasoning the FDA is going to insist that these very late stage prostate cancer patients....patients with an average life expectancy of approx. 18 months, are simply going to be denied a treatment which has demonstrated a 3-fold increase in overall survival with basically no serious side effects? They will be forced thus to choose Taxotere which is of such limited efficacy (a couple of months increase in survival) and such severe side effects that roughly half of the potential patient population simply refuses to take it. Look up the side effect profile of Taxotere, my friend. Those patients are supposedly going to be told by the FDA that they will simply have to wait until 2010 to receive a superior treatment, simply because the trial wasn't perfect?

People with such limited understanding as yourself, have no business investing in biotech.

FDA will grant a resounding "approval" to Provenge very soon, any day in fact; and it will usher in a new era of humane treatment for prostate cancer treatment.

Cramer's Bad Call On Dendreon: Real World vs. Television

Derek...

While I wholeheartedly agree that basing one's stock picks upon Cramer's opinion is indeed a fool's game (if anyone wishes to sing his praises as a stock picker, I suggest you visit a site which tracks the performance of his picks), I must take strong exception to a particular statement you made in your article. You indicated sympathy with Cramer as regards his negative call on DNDN, seemingly absolving him with the statement:..."picking against Dendreon made as much sense as coming out for them;..."

Not to offend, but your statement indicates your utter ignorance of the Dendreon case before the advisory panel, you apparently were as clueless as Cramer pretended to be....(you would have to know Cramer's history with DNDN to understand that he has an agenda when it comes to this call).

Explain to us if you will, what about a 3-fold increase in Overall Survival with virtually no side effects (transient fever and chills) you find hard to grasp. Were you even aware that the only FDA approved 'competition' to Dendreon's Provenge is Taxotere...a chemo agent with such limited efficacy, and side effects so severe and debillitating that approx. half of the potential recipients with end stage Prostate Cancer simply refuse to take it? It didn't take a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist to figure out, with high probability, which way the panel was going to vote. The cincher was when it was revealed that Provenge was to be reviewed by a division of CBER. The FDA had, prior to the Advisory Panel, conducted a joint symposium with NCI where they made their views regarding the emerging field of "active immunotherapeutic cancer vaccines" very clear. All it took was some time and effort to dig a bit, something you obviously failed to do. Next time do your homework instead of listening to the WallStreet/Hedge fund shills and you will not be left commiserating with the likes of Cramer.

Hint: Upcoming decision (anytime up to May 15th) from the FDA will be a resounding full approval, and the Provenge treatment, along with booster infusions and possibly some other following adjuvant therapy will go a long way towards making late stage Prostate Cancer a manageable disease instead of an eventual death sentence.

By the way, Dendreon's "cassette" technology is likely applicable to other cancers as well, they are by no means a "one trick pony", and with a ROW partner announcement to follow FDA approval, the sh/pr appreciation has only begun.