Article Excerpt:
TWST: Katherine, give us an idea of your biotech coverage at this point.Ms. Kim: Our primary focus is on oncology companies and we have five companies currently under coverage. They are Array BioPharma (ARRY), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX), Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals (CYCC), Hana Biosciences (HNAB), and YM BioSciences (YMI).
TWST: Why the concentration on the oncology space?
Ms. Kim: There are a few reasons why. Number one, in our opinion, the
oncology space will always be an area of great interest, both in the
medical and financial communities. It's an area where there are many
different drug targets under development and being discovered, and this
discovery process is expected to continue as we uncover the functions of
genes and proteins. Number two, because cancer is such a complex
disease, we believe multiple targets need to be hit simultaneously to
keep the disease under control. This creates the opportunity for
multiple drugs to be used in combination, and we believe targeted
therapy (as opposed to chemotherapy) will increasingly become an area of
intense development. Number three, it's also very attractive financially
because if a drug gets approved for a certain indication, there is an
opportunity for off-label usage in other related indications. What that
means is that the drug is used in a particular indication for which it
does not have an official label. An example of that is a drug approved
for relapsed/refractory breast cancer that is used off label for earlier
stage patients (such as first line or adjuvant breast cancer) or for a
different type of cancer like lung cancer. Finally, the addressable
market itself (the patient population) is very significant.
Tickers included in this excerpt: AMGN, ARRY, AZN, BCRX, BMY, CYCC, DNA, E, EORTCN, FDA, GSK, HNAB, IEX:TSX, IMCL, M, NBIX, OSIP, PFE, PFSOS, POZN, SPA, WYE, YMI
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