Pharmaceutical Industry to Spend $80 Billion Over the Next Decade

STAA, OSIP, AKRX Look Like Keepers Down the Road

0 Comment(s) - Post a Comment

# / Rating : 1 / 5.00 - 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5

Monday June 22, 2009 10:42 AM PDT

By Karen Riccio

President Obama has been rubbing elbows more than ever with the pharmaceutical industry and drug companies. Today, they pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors.

So here are a few stocks that should benefit from this agreement.

OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIP) is a small biotech company with a big hand in the treatment of lung cancer. Just last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted its flagship product Tarceva for review as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Taken in pill form, Tarceva has shown to slow down progression of the disease for a little more than a month.

OSIP ended the last trading session at $28.05. So far the stock has hit a 52-week low of $27.66 and 52-week high of $53.71. OSI Pharmaceuticals stock has been showing support around 27.14 and resistance in the 29.18 range.

After the FDA approved STAAR Surgical’s  (NASDAQ: STAA) Epiphany injector system, shares of the stock rose nearly 100%. The product, which will begin shipping in July, is used in eye surgeries.

STAAR has been on fire for the past month.  In mid-May this stock traded under $1.00. and traded north of $2.00 before coming back to $1.95 today.

The Ophthalmology and Eye Care Stocks Index is beating the S&P 500 by 4.3% over the last month.

Akorn (NASDAQ: AKRX) develops ophthalmic and injectable pharmaceutical products. One of the company’s main growth drivers is its generic Tetanus Diphtheria vaccine, which the company estimates has already taken 25% of the market share versus its brand-name competitor in just a little over a year.

Today, the company announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire from Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) all rights in the U.S. and Canada to manufacture, market and sell the lyophilized antibiotic Capastat Sulfate (capreomycin for injection, USP). Akorn will own the Capastat NDA and expects to launch the product in the third quarter of this year.

Akorn recently moved above its 50-day moving average, so now is a good time to add some shares of it to your portfolio.


Post a Comment
 

Title of the comment

Content of the comment

 
Bookmark and Share
 
Welcome! 
 

Interact and communicate with other savvy investors. Publish your own research and analysis, comment and rate other member articles of interest.

Discover and share the next big hidden gems!

Join Today! Creating a free account is simple and easy. Just go to the menu bar at the very top of this page and select "Join".

 
Why Become a Member? 
 
  • Connect, share and prosper from insightful analysis by experienced investors and traders.
  • Communicate, collaborate and exchange ideas on stocks and other market related topics.
  • Promote your knowledge and expertise and gain access to valuable SEO tools and functions.
  • Learn from investors and traders who have successfully navigated the markets for years.
  • Identify stocks and other investment ideas you never would have found elsewhere.
 
Whitelist Us 
 

Having Trouble Getting Our Email Newsletter?  Whitelist Us.

Click here for more info...

Wednesday October 28, 2009 4:35 PM GMT
If you’re a fan of trading the SPDR S&P 500 Fund (NYSE:SPY), or any index vehicle for that matter, you may want to put your bearish hat on. It’s no secret that the market’s been sinking for the last few days - we’ve seen plenty of ebb and flow since March. What traders may not [...]
Monday March 30, 2009 2:50 PM GMT
Wow. It’s not too often stocks lose a collective 3% within the first 5 minutes of trading. I suspected we were due for a nasty pullback (the kind of dip I forecasted on Thursday), and sure enough, here it is. The S&P 500 has now given up 4.8% from Thursday’s high. Is this enough to [...]
Thursday March 26, 2009 5:53 PM GMT
I hate to be a wet blanket here, but since nobody else seems willing to do it, I’ll put the task on my shoulders. So, here goes - despite the 22% bounce since March 9th, it’s not like the market is out of the woods yet. We still have some barriers to break through before [...]
Tuesday March 24, 2009 6:11 PM GMT
Yesterday’s gain was touted as being the best gain of the year. Fine, but that’s no big deal. The sellers have been relentless most of the year, so it wouldn’t necessarily be a great feat to be the biggest gain of the year (less than three months) so far. What I’m kind of baffled about [...]
 
SCN Newsletters 
 
Friday November 20, 2009 8:46 AM PST
Since we didn't have any new trades last week, we definitely want to add a couple this week to refill some of the ones we carved out a couple of weeks ago. As usual, we've got one bullish pick, and one bearish pick. Advance Auto Parts Inc. (AAP) - Bullish Surprised? Don't be. Advance Auto Parts Inc...
Friday November 13, 2009 9:15 AM PST
Assuming today's trading is uneventful and we don't make an unexpected move within the next few hours, we're probably going to end the session a little higher than Thursday's closing levels. And, that'll mean a decent 2.0% gain for the week. The situation is not nearly as bearish as the numbers would...
Friday November 6, 2009 9:43 AM PST
Though stocks slipped back into the red pretty quickly this morning after disappointing employment news was digested, the market should end the day with a decent gain for the week. I still have my doubts about this week's rally though. The buying volume was never all that strong, and we're still overbought...

This community is currently in beta and is constantly undergoing active development.  Please be patient as we strive to bring you a usable, full-featured community that you will enjoy.  If you should have any questions, problems, suggestions, feature requests, rants, and/or raves, please do not hesitate to let us know by writing us as : webmaster@smallcapnetwork.com.