Acadia Pharma: New High ($29.53)

Acadia has closed at a new all-time high on a inter-weekly basis.  The stock finished the day strong, on above average volume.  Below is a weekly chart of ACAD.

Bottom Line:  Even though the company announced a short delay for filing their new drug application for Nuplazid, the stock held up well, and has actually advanced higher.  Last week, the analyst house Cowen Group, provided coverage on ACAD with a buy rating, and a $46.00 price target on the stock. Perhaps that, and a strong biotech sector has contributed to the new high.  Thank you for reading.  We currently hold ACAD, and AVNR.  

MEI Pharma: AML Trial Update ($6.90)

Trial updates are coming in quite fast now, as companies seeing positive results want to bring that information to the public as soon as possible. Many are scheduled to appear at the ASH Conference on December 6th. MEI Pharma just updated investors on their AML phase 2 trial using Pracinostat (an HDACi) in combination with Vidaza for elderly newly diagnosed patients...

MDS & AML: Assessing the Landscape

There has not been an effective, and safe, FDA approved drug for MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome) or AML (acute myeloid leukemia) since Vidaza in 2004 and Dacogen in 2006.  This post will examine the competitive landscape of companies with the hope of meeting the unmet need for MDS and AML patients...

ACAD: Third Quarter Conference Call ($28.21)

There was good and somewhat bad news that ACAD announced today. First the somewhat bad news. The company is delaying the filing of their new drug application with the FDA to the first quarter of 2015, from previously the end of 2014.  They stressed that the delay is not an FDA issue, but more an internal issue of gathering all the pieces, for a well planned filing.  So the company is losing about three months by delaying this filing, not a big picture game changer...

The new information that we have not heard before, was the marketing research the company has been working on over the last year.  The research is below.

• 11,000 U.S. PDP treating physicians, mostly Neurologist
• 1 million Parkinson's Disease patients
• 400,000 thousand patients with PDP
• 50% have disruptive disturbances, (think sleep, or agitation/aggression (my notes)
• Reimbursement Payee is positive on the drug, (commercial, medicaid)
• Pricing of Nuplazid similar to Abilify 20 mg at $13,000 / Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC) annually.

 Thank you for reading.

MEI Pharma: ($7.87)

MEI Pharma (MEIP), updated investors this morning on the phase 2 trial of Pracinostat / Vidaza combo for elderly patients with AML.  The trial is about 50% complete, with a total of 14 patients currently evaluated.  The update is positive with (8) or 57% of AML patients achieving a CR + CRi response...

Japan Goes All-In With Quantitative Easing

This is certainly worth writing about, and is important for equity investors worldwide. Just 48 hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve concluded their QE (quantitative easing) program after six years, Japan announced they are increasing their QE program to $80 trillion Yen from $70 trillion, or to total $720 billion per year in dollar, which would amount to approximately $3 trillion per year total if applied to a US scale GDP...