Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Overhaul
Source: Russ Britt and Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch  (6/28/12)
"The ruling sent hospital stocks soaring by near-double-digit figures, with industry leader HCA Holdings Inc. jumping by 10%, along with Health Management Associates Inc. Medicaid insurers also jumped on the news, with WellCare Health Plans Inc. up more than 9%." More >

GAIN Act Should Benefit Antibiotic Makers
Source: Seeking Alpha, Jason Napodano  (6/27/12)
"The bill was designed to accelerate reviews of novel drugs for infectious diseases, to mandate electronic NDA submissions and to improve communications between manufacturers and the FDA to prevent drug shortages." More >

The Price of Togetherness
Source: BioSpace, Karl Thiel   (6/22/12)
"The growing demand for drugs in emerging markets means that some of these collaboratively developed drugs may eventually reach much broader audiences, meaning larger populations over which to recoup development costs, bigger opportunities for rare disease indications and acceptable profits even if prices are forced lower." More >

Special Report from the ADA: William Plovanic Identifies Companies with Promising Diabetes Solutions, Prospects
Source: The Life Sciences Report Editors  (6/21/12)
Every year, top researchers and physicians meet at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions. This year, Canaccord Genuity Analyst and Managing Director William Plovanic reported back on promising developments and what they could mean for the companies behind them. In this interview with The Life Sciences Report, he explains why he is so positive on the space in general and about certain companies in particular. More >

Healthcare Sees Emerging Future in Frugal Innovation
Source: Reuters, Kate Kelland  (6/20/12)
"Big companies like General Electric and Siemens, which build some of the world's most complex and costly pieces of the healthcare kit, are working to develop cheaper medical devices that can secure sales in emerging markets and potentially win business at home." More >

Myriad Fires First Shot in Circuit Rematch over Gene Patenting
Source: Alex Philippidis, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News  (6/15/12)
"The first question remains open: What intellectual material is patentable? The second was partly answered by Justice Breyer in Mayo v. Prometheus: What has to be added to a law of nature to make it a patentable process?" More >

Five Ways to Spot the Next Hot Biotech Stock
Source: Keith Fitz-Gerald, Money Morning  (6/13/12)
"For all their potential, biotech stocks remain among the most challenging for investors to identify, select and earn money on. However, with a little bit of guidance you can narrow your list to the stocks with the highest likely upside." More >

High Court to Hear Amgen's 'Fraud-on-the-Market' Case
Source: Mari Serebrov, BioWorld Today  (6/12/12)
"The biotech industry is hoping the Supreme Court will do what Congress hasn't been able to do—give companies a fighting chance against class-action shareholder lawsuits claiming 'fraud on the market.'" More >

New AMA Chief: No Chaos with Court's Health Ruling
Source: Associated Press, Lindsey Tanner  (6/6/12)
"The AMA has supported Obama's health overhaul, though a vocal contingent of doctor-members has urged the group to back off that stance." More >

Six Biotech Stocks Riding the Baby Boomer Wave
Source: Diane Alter, Money Morning  (6/6/12)
"While no one has discovered a cure for Alzheimer's, cancer, Parkinson's or other ailments that come along with old age, several biotech companies are racing to cure a long list of diseases and disorders. The prospects are daunting but the possibilities in the biotech field are literally endless, for patients and investors alike." More >

The 152-Year-Old Brain That Changed the Course of Science
Source: Michael Robinson, Money Morning  (5/29/12)
"An accident a century and a half ago has provided a major link to one of the biggest quests in all of science: getting a complete map of the human brain. Once we have that under our belts, you will see one biotech breakthrough after another after another." More >

'Arise and Walk!'—A Miracle Cure in the Works
Source: Severine Kirchner, Daily Reckoning  (5/28/12)
"Stem cell therapies are on the threshold of making truly miraculous cures an everyday event." More >

Collectively, 'Rare' Disease Variants Are Pretty Common
Source: Anette Breindl, BioWorld  (5/22/12)
"The fact that variants are rare does not mean they are not useful for drug discovery. Cholesterol-lowering statins, for example, were identified because of rare variants that lead to extremely low cholesterol levels in their carriers." More >

Health System Builds Telehealth Network; Sees Great Return on Investment
Source: Healthcare Finance News, Erin McCann  (5/22/12)
"Polycom, a video conference and communications company, is helping Saint Vincent Health System build a telehealth network by visually connecting healthcare professionals and patients in virtual environments across 26 facilities in Pennsylvania." More >

Prostate-Cancer Screening Isn't Worth Risks, US Panel Says
Source: Bloomberg, Alex Nussbaum  (5/22/12)
"The 16-doctor panel urged against screening for men of all ages. The report cited the slow growth of most prostate tumors as well as false positive rates that may be as high as 80%." More >

Prostate Cancer Screening Isn't Worth Risks, US Panel Says
Source: Bloomberg, Alex Nussbaum  (5/22/12)
"The 16-doctor panel urged against screening for men of all ages. The report cited the slow growth of most prostate tumors as well as false positive rates that may be as high as 80%." More >

Five Companies in the Casey Portfolio Worth Watching: Alex Daley
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (5/17/12)
Biotech and medtech expose investors to rapid growth in healthcare innovation. In this exclusive interview with The Life Sciences Report, Chief Investment Strategist Alex Daley of Casey's Extraordinary Technology matches science to unmet needs to bring big ideas and big returns to investors. More >

Buyout Options Gaining a Foothold
Source: Alex Philippidis, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News  (5/17/12)
"Deals involving buyout rights have two features that make them attractive to smaller partners: up-front payments and a longer-term path to liquidity for their investors." More >

Biotech Stock ETFs: How to Ride the Surge in Mergers & Acquisitions
Source: Don Miller, Money Morning  (5/16/12)
"Investing in biotech stocks requires not only an understanding of the company's finances, but also knowledge of the company's potential based on its products and technologies. You can reduce some of the guesswork by using exchange-traded funds, which give you exposure without betting the farm on a single company." More >

Stakeholders Share Data to Design Better Trials for Neurodegenerative Diseases
Source: Patricia F. Dimond, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News   (5/15/12)
"The Coalition Against Major Diseases is an industrial consortia of companies willing to share precompetitive knowledge and work in support of projects identified as high priority by the FDA and in the interest of public health." More >

Venture Capital Is Not Dead. . .Just Resting!
Source: MD+DI, Brian Buntz  (5/14/12)
"Summarizing her thoughts on the venture capital model, venture capitalist Lisa Suennen jokingly quoted Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch: 'It is not dead. . .it is just resting!'" More >

UMass to Break Ground on Biotech Testing Facility
Source: Herald News, Grant Welker  (5/13/12)
"The facility allows start-up companies to conduct research, test and scale up their products, or partner with other startups. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth says it will eliminate a common barrier for entering the life science industry." More >

Expression Profiles Accurately Predict Breast Cancer Response to Chemotherapy
Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News  (5/11/12)
"Scientists have identified two gene-expression profiles that can predict how well breast tumors respond to specific types of chemotherapy, independent of standard variables such as age, tumor grade and estrogen receptor status." More >

Will Mayo v. Prometheus Fire Up Pharma?: Kevin DeGeeter
Source: George S. Mack of The Life Sciences Report  (5/10/12)
Newly discovered biomarkers could provide physicians with information that will aid in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The big question for investors is whether, in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling Mayo Collaborative Services Inc. v. Prometheus Laboratories, companies will be able to profit from that innovation. In this exclusive interview with
The Life Sciences Report, Kevin DeGeeter, senior analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., shares the names of a select group of companies with good prospects, focusing on those targeting "sweet spots" in personalized medicine. More >

Investment Banker Kevin DeGeeter's Best Idea Yet
Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report  (5/10/12)
Personalized medicine and targeted therapeutics are about narrowing down disease to achieve more definitive diagnostics and then finding more precise therapies. One could argue that every person's cancer is a different disease because the tumor cells contain the patient's own genome and are therefore different from the next individual's tumor cells. Newer genetic-based technologies are useful in detecting disease that was previously undetectable. Analyst and Director Kevin DeGeeter of New York City-based investment bank Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. follows personalized medicine and medical device companies ranging from small- to mid-cap, where investors can still reap multiples on original investment. I recently interviewed him for The Life Sciences Report and learned to look at cancer treatment in a new way. More >