There is an undeniable cycle to nature. Leaves turn color and fall, birds migrate across continents, and stocks fall after the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting. Making matters perhaps a bit worse this year, there were very few presentations that really stood out and not an abundance of positive news for investors to process. As is so often the case, though, there was a lot of buying momentum into the meeting and Wall Street is once again playing out the "buy the rumor, sell the news" meme.
The Best in Show - YMI and Exelixis
The most interesting presentations arguably belonged to YM BioSciences (AMEX:YMI) and Exelixis (Nasdaq:EXEL). It is also par for the course, though, that neither presentation was completely "clean" and investors still have a lot of questions about the future of the respective drugs.
For YMI, it was all about Phase 1/2 data from the JAK-2 inhibitor CYT387 in myelofibrosis. Myelofibrosis is a rare condition and one that frequently leads to an enlarged spleen and/or anemia. This relatively small study showed good spleen response and suggested benefit in counteracting anemia. Unfortunately, this is the prime question about CYT387 - is the anemia benefit "real"? If so, this could be a drug worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but investors are just going to have to wait for further studies to confirm (or disprove) this benefit. On an encouraging note, the company seems to be taking a very smart approach to the clinical development of the drug. (For more, see Measuring The Medicine Makers.)
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