(LLY) - Page 25 - Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Update on the Covid-19 Vaccine Frontrunner

With the flu season just around the corner and herd immunity nowhere in sight, the pressure to develop a COVID-19 vaccine becomes even more urgent. From where things stand right now though, it looks like we could have a vaccine either already available on the market or ready to hit the market around this time in 2021.

We know we’ll need hundreds of millions of vaccine doses, and the majority of the vaccine programs today are getting built on industrial-scale vaccine platforms. This is positive news.

On an even more positive update, a handful of biotechnology and health care companies are now on late-stage testing for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Leading the charge so far is AstraZeneca (AZN), which received $1.2 billion in financial assistance courtesy of the US government’s Operation Warp Speed program.

AstraZeneca is working on an experimental vaccine, called AZD1222, with the University of Oxford and China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).

So far, this is the only COVID-19 vaccine candidate in late-stage Phase 3 trials.

The trials are scheduled to be conducted in different countries, with some already in progress in South Africa, Brazil, and of course, the UK.

The stage will enroll over 10,000 people in the UK alone. The goal is to determine AZD1222’s efficacy in a sizeable group aged 18 and older.

What we know about AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate is that it’s created from a weakened version of adenovirus, which comes from one of the virus types that causes the common cold. It also includes genetic material from COVID-19, which was added to help the patient’s body recognize the pathogen and trigger a defense mechanism to fight off the infection.

Researchers say that the best-case scenario is for the Phase 3 efficacy results of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be available by this fall.

However, AstraZeneca remains an attractive stock even sans its Covid-19 program thanks to its remarkable drug pipeline. With the foresight to stockpile drugs during this pandemic, the company’s earnings are projected to continuously grow.

In the past five to six years, AstraZeneca has been aggressive in investing in its pipeline to combat patent losses. Now, the company joins Roche (RHHBY) and Eli Lilly (LLY) in the list of companies with the most innovative candidates that are poised to launch commercial products capable of driving growth in the next decade.

A notable growth driver for AstraZeneca is its cancer franchise, particularly its key drug Tagrisso, which is set to tap into a massive market.

Before AstraZeneca was dubbed the leader in the COVID-19 vaccine race, there was Moderna (MRNA). Actually, this small biotechnology company is also expected to begin its late-stage Phase 3 trial in July.

Like AstraZeneca, Moderna is also one of the companies included in the Operation Warp Speed project and received $483 million from the government.

Unlike AstraZeneca, Moderna appears to be experiencing delays due to conflicts between the company’s experts and the US government scientists.

While Moderna shares jumped by over 200% since the pandemic started, these reported tensions represent a risk for its investors. It is particularly alarming because the company is a clinical-stage biotechnology company with no marketed products.

Although Moderna’s timeline remains to be the most aggressive, it could easily drown in the competition.

Keep in mind that other companies competing for the top spot in the COVID-19 race are all established and armed with extensive experience in launching new drugs to market. The list includes Pfizer (PFE), which has a market capitalization of $185.86 billion, and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) with $375.40 billion.

Needless to say, the inexperience of companies like Moderna could prove to be a handicap in this highly competitive race.

July 14, 2020/by Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Gilead Sciences Remdesivir Miracle

Biotech Letter

Gilead Sciences (GILD) has been in the spotlight for months now. The company gained even more attention when the FDA granted it emergency authorization to use its drug Remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment.

To date, there are roughly 20 clinical trials for Remdesivir across the globe --- and Gilead is wasting no time to expand the use of this drug.

In a recent announcement, the company shared that Remdesivir will also be tested as an inhaled formulation for outpatients.

To compare, the drug is currently given in intravenous form to patients who are already considered severe cases. This latest iteration of the drug could offer a COVID-19 treatment to those with mild cases which could eventually lead to early treatment of the disease, making hospitalization unnecessary.

At the moment, Remdesivir shortens the recovery period of hospitalized COVID-19 patients by four days or roughly 31%.

Gilead will test this inhaled formulation of Remdesivir on 60 healthy participants in the US.

Aside from testing its inhaled formulation, the company is also planning to test an IV version of Remdesivir. This could be used for outpatient settings, such as nursing homes and infusion centers.

There are also trials to determine whether the efficacy level of Remdesivir could increase if combined with other drugs. For this, Gilead is working with Roche (RHHBY) for its Actemra and Eli Lilly (LLY) to test Olumiant. Both are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Since the pandemic started and Gilead’s COVID-19 efforts, the company’s shares jumped by 17.5% so far, topping the 2% decline of the S&P 500 Index.

A notable factor that has been fueling Gilead’s improvement is the US government’s confidence in Remdesivir.

In early July, the Department of Health and Human Services all but wiped clean the company’s Remdesivir supply as it contracted Gilead to sell 500,000 treatment courses to US hospitals through the end of September.

This purchase adds up to $1.2 billion in Remdesivir sales in the third quarter of 2020 alone, with the drug estimated to generate $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter.

This puts the estimated total sales of Remdesivir at $3 billion for this year.

The company set the price for each course of Remdesivir treatment at $2,340 for the government, with a price tag of $3,120 for private US insurers. At this price point, every patient is estimated to save $12,000 in hospital bills.

This is actually lower than the anticipated pricing of Remdesivir. Initially, the cost per treatment course was projected to reach $5,080.

However, this pricing estimate is intended for developed countries.

For developing countries, Gilead forged deals with various generic manufacturers to ensure that the treatment is provided at substantially lower prices.

So far, the company has established licensing deals with generic drugmakers in 127 developing countries.

One of them is Mylan N.V. (MYL), which has received authorization from the Indian government to market its generic version of the Remdesivir.

Mylan’s version, which will be sold under the brand name Desrem, is expected to be around $62.40 per vial.

This is about 80% cheaper than Gilead’s Remdesivir, which costs $390 for each vial.

Outside its COVID-19 efforts, Gilead’s FDA application for rheumatoid arthritis drug Filgotinib is expected to inject the company’s top line with a much-welcomed sales growth.

Although Gilead’s 2019 top line fell flat, its first-quarter earnings report showed a promising 5% year-over-year bump in its sales. This growth is primarily attributed to the continuous improvement of its HIV product line, which showed a 14% increase in sales.

Overall, Gilead remains a value buy.

Gilead stock currently trades at 11.6 times its expected earnings over the course of the next 12 months, which is well above its average 7.3 times earnings.

The stock offers a quarterly dividend of $0.68, yielding a reasonable 3.5% annually. As modest as it sounds, this still well above the usual 2% that shareholders typically expect from an average stock.

July 14, 2020/by Mad Hedge Fund Trader

July 7, 2020

Biotech Letter

Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
July 7, 2020
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(THE BILLIONS IN CROSS-PRESCRIBING FOR COVID-19),
(INCY), (NVS), (REGN), (SNY), (RHHBY), (LLY), (AZN), (GILD)

July 7, 2020/by Mad Hedge Fund Trader

The Billions in Cross-Prescribing for Covid-19

Biotech Letter

Although there is no obvious connection between cancer and viral infections, Delaware-based biotechnology and pharmaceutical company Incyte (INCY) is optimistic that its blood cancer treatment Jakafi can offer a solution to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research on Jakafi’s efficacy against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) started in April. It’s rooted in the premise that since the drug works by inhibiting the immune cells, then it can be effective in suppressing the body’s response to the coronavirus attack.

This is promising considering that the immune system bears the brunt of the most deleterious effects of the virus, with the patients’ own cells attacking their bodies that subsequently leads to death.

Jakafi received its first approval back in 2011. While it was discovered and marketed by Incyte in the US, this drug is sold by Novartis (NVS) outside the country under the name Jakavi.

Apart from Incyte, other companies working on a similar strategy of using an autoimmune disease drug to treat COVID-19 complications include Regeneron (REGN), Sanofi (SNY), and Roche Holding’s (RHHBY).

Outside its COVID-19 efforts, Incyte is also looking into expanding the market for Jakafi.

In 2019, Jakafi sales grew by 21% to reach $1.7 billion. Revenues were derived from the drug’s three approved uses, namely, myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, and acute graft-versus-host disease.

For 2020, Incyte estimates sales to grow to hit $1.8 billion to $1.95 billion, paving the way for Jakafi to become a $3 billion brand.

So far, Incyte is hoping to achieve this by expanding Jakafi’s indications to include atopic dermatitis. The goal is to submit this for approval by the fourth quarter of the year.

Another COVID-19-related effort linked to the company is testing rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant, which Eli Lilly (LLY) licensed from Incyte.

Eli Lilly is investigating this drug in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) hoping Olumiant can be used to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Other companies looking into the same plan are Roche with Actemra and AstraZeneca (AZN) via Calquence.

Aside from that, NIAID is also looking into the efficacy of Olumiant when combined with Gilead Sciences’ (GILD) lead COVID-19 candidate Remdesivir.

Looking into Incyte’s earnings history, it’s safe to say that the company is on its way to a brighter financial future.

Last year, Incyte’s total global revenue reached $2.16 billion, showing a 15% increase from 2018.

Aside from its best-selling drug Jakafi, Incyte has another potential blockbuster in its portfolio in the form of blood cancer treatment Iclusig. This drug, which the company licensed from Ariad Pharmaceuticals, added $90 million in sales last year.

In addition, Incyte earned $226 million in royalties from Novartis’ sales of Jakafi outside the US and $80 million from Eli Lilly’s Olumiant sales last year.

As for Incyte’s pipeline for 2020, the company kicked off the second quarter with an early FDA approval of bile duct cancer treatment Pemazyre.

This new medication is also anticipated to be another bestseller for Incyte, with a $17,000 price tag for every treatment cycle.

On average, each patient requires eight to nine cycles in a span of six months. This puts the cost for every patient somewhere between $136,000 and $153,000.

At this rate, Pemazyre can rake in $50 million for 2020 alone.

Given that the world is still struggling with the pandemic, the company reported a modest peak sales estimate for Pemazyre at $140 million.

While this may not be enough to move the needle, Incyte is optimistic that the number will rise once the crisis is behind us.

More importantly, Incyte offers a fast-growing portfolio along with promising pipeline candidates that could give bigger biotechnology companies a run for their money.

July 7, 2020/by Mad Hedge Fund Trader

June 30, 2020

Biotech Letter

Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
June 30, 2020
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(MODERNA’S BIG CORONA PLAY FOR A SMALL COMPANY)
(MRNA), (INO), (NVAX), (JNJ), (PFE), (BNTX), (LZAGF), (REGN), (AZN), (LLY), (MRK)

June 30, 2020/by Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Moderna's Big Corona Play for a Small Company

Biotech Letter

Credit where credit is due.

Tiny Moderna Inc (MRNA) has been at the forefront ever since this pandemic broke, with its vaccine program growing in leaps and bounds compared to competitors, like Novavax (NVAX), which has $3.02 billion in market capitalization, and Inovio (INO), which has $2.20 billion.

The latest report on Moderna’s progress pushes it much further ahead of its competitors.

Looking at its timeline, Moderna could have efficacy data on its COVID-19 vaccine, called mRNA-1273, by Thanksgiving.

Moderna’s vaccine, which is similar to the work of Pfizer’s German collaborator BioNTech (BNTX), utilizes a novel approach that inserts small doses of genetic instructions into the cells of humans.

These then trigger the production of harmless proteins, which mimic the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The proteins subsequently alert the body to produce antibodies, making the vaccine a proactive measure that protects people from infection by the actual virus.

Right now, Moderna is in the second stage of the trials. The final stage involving 30,000 people is expected to begin in July.

With the vaccine program well underway, Moderna secured manufacturing capabilities through a strategic collaboration with Swiss biotechnology company Lonza (LZAGF).

This partnership with a manufacturing site ensures that Moderna is on track to deliver approximately 500 million doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine every year and could handle up to 1 billion doses annually starting from 2021.

With such massive competitors like Pfizer (PFE) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) but also other healthcare heavyweights, such as Regeneron (REGN), AstraZeneca (AZN), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Merck (MRK), the best-case scenario for Moderna is to launch its COVID-19 vaccine before its peers.

Considering the progress it has made so far and the 208% jump in Moderna’s shares this year, it looks like investors anticipate that the company can win the COVID-19 vaccine race and capitalize on its future cash-making machine.

After all, no other biotechnology stock has taken more advantage of this health crisis than Moderna. The company exploded from having the biggest IPO in biotechnology history to now being celebrated as the COVID-19 vaccine leader.

Moderna grew from being a biotechnology company worth roughly $4 billion to $5 billion to an impressive $25 billion frontrunner in a few months’ time.

This is especially impressive since Moderna commanded this kind of valuation without having any approved product in the market. In fact, this clinical stage biotechnology company is valued more than several companies with marketed treatments.

While it has no product in the market today, Moderna actually has a robust pipeline that boasts 22 mRNA candidates, with 12 of these already in clinical studies. The lineup includes potential vaccines for the Zika virus along with a promising oncology pipeline.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Moderna’s lead candidate was its cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine called mRNA-1647. CMV, which affects almost 80% of adults in the US alone, is caused by a virus related to those that cause chickenpox and mononucleosis.

Moderna expects the Phase 2 study analysis for mRNA-1647 to be completed by the third quarter of 2020, with Phase 3 set to start by early 2021.

The company is also working with fellow biotechnology companies on potential cancer vaccines.

So far, Moderna has been focusing on two candidates which are also currently undergoing Phase 2 testing.

The first candidate is called mRNA-4157, which is a personalized cancer vaccine developed for melanoma patients.

Moderna is evaluating the combination of this vaccine with Merck’s top-selling cancer treatment Keytruda. This could turn out to be a potent combination considering Keytruda’s track record.

The second candidate is a collaboration with AstraZeneca. The latter licensed the rights to one of Moderna’s heart disease drug candidate called AZD8601. If successful, this drug will be marketed to patients in need of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery.

Riding the momentum of its COVID-19 vaccine program, Moderna conducted a secondary stock offering last May. With $1.34 billion in gross proceeds from that sale alone, the company ensured that it’s well-capitalized to fund its development programs.

While its $25 billion market capitalization is pennies compared to fellow COVID-19 vaccine leaders JNJ and Pfizer, the smaller biotechnology company is definitely giving these behemoths a run for their money.

June 30, 2020/by Mad Hedge Fund Trader

June 25, 2020

Biotech Letter

Mad Hedge Biotech & Healthcare Letter
June 25, 2020
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(COVID-19’s STEROID ROADBLOCK)
GILD), (MRNA), (INO), (SVA), (AZN), (MRK), (SNY), (GSK), (NVAX), (JNJ), (PFE), (LLY), (REGN)

June 25, 2020/by Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Covid-19’s Steroid Roadblock

Biotech Letter

Science rarely gets communicated accurately.

Earlier this month, UK health experts said that an existing drug called dexamethasone can cut the risk of death among patients suffering from severe COVID-19.

According to the Oxford University researchers, dexamethasone lowered the COVID-19 deaths by roughly 35% among patients in ventilators and 20% among those who required oxygen.

The experts clarified that this means for every 8 patients on ventilators treated with dexamethasone, they were able to save 1 life.

In response to this study, here’s the gist of what most news outlets reported: “Miracle COVID-19 cure discovered!”

Now, health experts are scrambling to get their voices heard over the loud pronouncements of opportunistic businesses heralding the sale of this life-saving drug.

Days after the UK experts released this information, government authorities have issued warning after warning against stockpiling this drug for personal consumption.

Up until today, they’re still convincing people that dexamethasone is not a community drug and should only be used if prescribed by a medical professional.

That is, dexamethasone is a treatment for the sickest of the sick and should not be used as a preventive treatment.

Here’s how it works, and why it can only be used in severe cases.

The dexamethasone dampens the immune system for patients in ventilators or oxygen. This is effective because in severe cases, the immune system turns against the body, specifically the lungs, causing deaths. That’s what dexamethasone addresses.

This means that dexamethasone cannot be used on mild COVID-19 cases. Patients classified under this category still have relatively healthy immune systems, which would of course be more preferable tools to fight the disease.

Although there has been a misconception about this treatment, this drug is definitely a breakthrough that the world badly needs at the moment. The positive results of its efficacy make it a first-line therapy until a vaccine gets approved.

So far, the leaders in the vaccine race include Moderna (MRNA), Inovio (INO), Sinovac Biotech (SVA), AstraZeneca (AZN)/Oxford, Merck (MRK), Sanofi (SNY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Novavax (NVAX), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Pfizer (PFE).

Dexamethasone has been around for almost 60 years, making the drug available practically everywhere.

It’s also safe since dexamethasone is included in the WHO’s list of essential drugs.

What we know is that this drug has been approved by the UK government to be used on COVID-19 patients in ventilators and oxygen.

Before being identified as a potential COVID-19 cure, dexamethasone has been widely used as a steroid treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, bowel disorders, skin disease, and some cancers.

The average retail cost of this drug is around $50 per 10mg. Since the treatment only requires a low dosage, the price would fall somewhere between $6 to $8 per patient.

Needless to say, this cheap treatment could hurt the sales of competing drugmakers aiming to come up with their own COVID-19 cure.

To date, the leaders in this field include Eli Lilly (LLY), Regeneron (REGN), and of course, Gilead Sciences (GILD).

Among those, the only treatment to show a noticeable effect in treating severe COVID-19 patients is Gilead’s Remdesivir.

Although Remdesivir has not been hailed as a miracle cure, this Gilead product managed to offer sufficient benefits to fuel demand.

According to its Phase 3 trial data, 65% of patients dosed with Remdesivir for five days showed better clinical improvement compared to a standard-of-care group.

When the pandemic broke out, Gilead announced that it’s giving away its remaining supply of Remdesivir, which amounts to roughly 1.5 million doses.

Nonetheless, the company disclosed that it plans to invest up to $1 billion on the development of the drug for COVID-19 patients.

Since government funding also comprises a portion of Remdesivir’s development, the arrangement inevitably raises the question of how much revenue the drug can generate.

After all, pricing will definitely be crucial because the company will have to strike a balance between making an acceptable profit and offering an affordable cure to patients.

Financial analysts estimate that Remdesivir’s potential profit could reach $7.7 billion by 2022.

If these estimates turn out right, then Gilead investors are sitting on a veritable gold mine.

Regardless of Remdesivir’s sales, Gilead remains a giant biotechnology and pharmaceutical company with a market capitalization of $97.18 billion.

In fact, it’s considered as one of the recession-resistant companies today thanks to its diversified portfolio and strategic acquisitions.

One of the main reasons for its stature in the industry is the fact that Gilead continues to be the definitive leader in the HIV market today.

Its top-selling drug Biktarvy recorded an impressive $4.1 billion in sales for the first quarter of 2020 alone, a substantial increase from its $3.6 billion earnings during the same period in 2019.

On top of that, Gilead secured patent exclusivity for Biktarvy until the early 2030s. This all but guarantees that the company’s cash cow remains safe from competition for many years.

The expansion of gene therapy Yescarta to cover the European market also proved to be effective. Sales of this lymphoma treatment jumped from $96 million in the first quarter of 2019 to $140 million in the same period this year.

Meanwhile, Gilead’s $4.9 billion acquisition of Forty Seven in April this year indicated the company’s move to expand its oncology sector. Specifically, blood cancer therapy Magrolimab is projected as the next blockbuster.

All these demonstrate that Gilead is well-positioned to handle major financial and even health crises.

More importantly, Gilead’s position as a leader in the search for a COVID-19 cure indicates its capacity to withstand a possible second wave of this pandemic as well as the potential to boost its sales in the process.