Seeking Alpha: Johnson & Johnson Finding Growth A Little Harder Now

The health care sector has staged a strong multiyear recovery, and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has more than just gone along for the ride. Although the company has had to deal with major recalls in the consumer business and unimpressive growth in the device business, the pharmaceutical business has emerged as a real star with six blockbusters introduced in the last five years.

Nothing lasts forever, though, and 2015 is shaping up as a more challenging year. Headwinds in the pharmaceutical business appear to be coinciding with forex-related pressure and the device business is unlikely to accelerate enough to make up the difference. None of this makes Johnson & Johnson a bad company, though, and investors may want to keep an eye on these shares for the opportunity to pick up a potential long-term holding at an attractive price.

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Johnson & Johnson Finding Growth A Little Harder Now

The Motley Fool: Roche Holding Ltd Is Betting Billions on This New Blockbuster

Roche (NASDAQOTH: RHHBY  ) rarely does expensive early stage deals, relying instead upon its deep proprietary pipeline of oncology drug candidates. So when the company commits itself to $725 million upfront and $1 billion more in milestones (to say nothing of the hundreds of millions that will be required for clinical trials) for a new cancer drug approach, investors would do well to pay attention. When that new approach concerns breast cancer, an area where Roche is particularly strong, it's all the more interesting.

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Roche Holding Ltd Is Betting Billions on This New Blockbuster

The Motley Fool: Exelixis Inc's Comet Fails To Dazzle

Astronomers have grown very cautious over the years about predicting which comets will brighten the night skies, as all too many have failed to live up to expectation. Small biotech Exelixis'  (NASDAQ: EXEL  ) own comet, the COMET-1 study of cabozantinib in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, likewise has failed to live up to the most optimistic hopes. Although the stock's 25% drop on Wednesday may seem like an overreaction, the reality is that the company badly needed a winner and the absence of an early halt due to efficacy suggests that the company could face a tough battle in getting market share in the prostate cancer space.

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Exelixis Inc's Comet Fails To Dazzle

Investopedia: It's No Accident That Drugs Are Expensive

The cost of prescription drugs is a perennial subject of heated debate, as advocates on one side argue that drug companies make windfall profits and overcharge health care systems and advocates on the other side argue that higher drug prices simply reflect a higher cost of doing business and a need for companies to make a return commensurate with the risks they take on. Although I have no delusions that I'll change the minds of those who believe drugs are too expensive and that drug companies are abusing patients and insurance companies, the impact of rising costs of drug development can't be ignored.

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Investopedia: Intuitive Surgical's Miss Looks Systemic And Company-Specific

It wasn't so long ago that Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq:ISRG) was one of the cleanest growth stories in med-tech, as hospitals seemingly couldn't buy the company's surgical robots fast enough. Not only did Intuitive's daVinci robot come to all but dominate the prostatectomy market, but it was well on its way to taking significant share in hysterectomy as well.

Then the bad news began. From reports of surgical complications to multiple papers alleging that robotic surgery is not cost-effective, the news flow turned decidedly negative even as procedure counts continued to grow.

Now we have a major quarterly earnings miss to digest. While there are enough rumblings out there to suggest that it's not a solely Intuitive-specific issue and the procedure growth numbers still look decent, it looks this highly-valued stock is going back into the penalty box. I do believe Intuitive continues to offer above-average growth in the med-tech space, though, and the reality is that this stock only seems to get cheap when the news flow gets pretty scary.

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Seeking Alpha: Johnson & Johnson And Aragon May Have Medivation Feeling Sick

The already-successful new prostate cancer drug Zytiga is not solely responsible for turning around the fortunes of Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) once-lackluster drug business, but it has certainly played an important role. Johnson & Johnson is now doubling-down on that success, acquiring privately-held Aragon Pharmaceuticals in a $1 billion deal that could represent a major headache for prime prostate cancer drug rival Medivation (MDVN). Although Medivation is likely to have several more years before it has to worry about Aragon's drug, this is very clearly a shot across the bow from a well-armed rival with deep pockets.

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Johnson & Johnson And Aragon May Have Medivation Feeling Sick

MassDevice: Can Johnson & Johnson Fire On All Cylinders Again?

In what has become a red-hot stock market for med-tech stocks, it's the rare quality company that hasn't taken part in the rally. As a huge player in drugs, devices, and OTC consumer healthcare products, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has certainly been carried along by this healthcare lovefest – the shares are up nearly 40% over the past year, and only a small handful of other large companies (Stryker (NYSE: SYK) and Roche (Nasdaq: RHHBY), for instance) can come close to matching or exceeding Johnson & Johnson.

The curious thing about this performance is that it hasn't accompanied strong, even financial performance. JNJ's drug business has roared back to life, but the device business continues to struggle with a difficult environment and past mistakes, while the consumer business tries to recover from the reputation and market share damage incurred by the spate of recalls and contamination problems a few years ago.

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Investopedia: Little Left To Dendreon But The Hope Trade

Biotech investors are a stubborn and hopeful lot, and many of them will never give up the ship. While confidence and patience are admirable traits up to a point, it sometimes feels like some biotech investors would spin the sun going dark as a positive, as it means no more skin cancer. In the case of Dendreon (Nasdaq:DNDN), it's only the true believers and traders who have any confidence that this company has much of a future. With another very disappointing quarter in the books, I think the only real debate left to have is whether the company can survive.

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Seeking Alpha: Astellas Needs To Pick A Model To Prosper

There are multiple avenues to success in the pharmaceutical industry. Companies can go the Big Pharma route of significant internal R&D development and sales efforts, the Forest Labs (FRX) approach of minimal R&D and extensive in-licensing, or the tried-and-true biotech approach of major R&D development with sales handled by larger pharmaceutical partners.

What is more difficult, though, is to do both. While many companies go through an awkward phase where they rely on licensing or co-promotion agreements while building their own sales force (Lundbeck (HLUYY.PK) being a good example), Japan's Astellas Pharma (ALPMY.PK) needs to come up with a clearer strategy and stick to it. As it is, the company's odd mix of internal efforts, partnerships, and licensing doesn't seem to be producing exceptional results or value.

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Astellas Needs To Pick A Model To Prosper

Seeking Alpha: Johnson & Johnson Looks To Get Ahead With Blocking And Tackling

With the Synthes acquisition done and Zytiga on the market, I don't think Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) investors should expect too much additional flash in 2013. That may not be such a bad thing, though, as this is a pretty good company that would benefit from some serious "back to basics" operational improvements. J&J is also looking like a like relative bargain, with good growth in pharmaceuticals and opportunity for improved results in the device business.

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Johnson & Johnson Looks To Get Ahead With Blocking And Tackling

Investopedia: A Look Back At The Year In Biotech

Despite 2012 being a year where investors were increasingly skittish as the year wore on, the exceptionally risky biotechnology industry enjoyed an exceptionally good year. While the group has come off a bit from its peak in the early fall, the group is up more than 30% year to date - making it not only a strong outperformer relative to the S&P 500 (which is up about 12%), but one of the best-performing groups of the year.

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Investopedia: Is "Less Bad" As Good As It Gets For Dendreon?

Investors who continue to stick by Dendreon (Nasdaq:DNDN), and its struggling prostate cancer therapy, Provenge, finally got a glimmer of good news after third quarter results. While Wall Street seemed to be pleased that this quarterly result was closer to "on target" (after a string of bad quarterly reports), Dendreon still has a lot of work ahead of it to turn this story around. I know Dendreon still has a loyal core of supporters, but it's difficult to argue for buying this stock when so many other drug companies offer better prospects for long-term gains.

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Investopedia: The Week Ahead In Healthcare

As is generally the case for many areas of the stock market, summer marks a pronounced slowdown in newsflow and stock action for the healthcare sector. Although these periods can be frustrating for investors and traders who crave action, the sluggish pace of trading can afford others an opportunity to get caught up on due diligence and begin establishing positions.

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Seeking Alpha: Alzheimer's Drug Bapi Looks Done (Again)

Denial and bargaining are integral parts of the Kübler-Ross grief hypothesis, and anybody who writes about the healthcare and biotech sectors knows that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was on to something. When I last wrote about the disappointing results of bapineuzumab (or bapi), a drug that Pfizer (PFE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Elan (ELN) were developing for Alzheimer's disease, I suggested that the drug was a goner and investors should respond accordingly.

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Alzheimer's Drug Bapi Looks Done (Again)

Seeking Alpha: DONE-Dreon?

With yet another disappointment in the bag, maybe the Dendreon (DNDN) bulls can take a break with the "success is just around the corner" stories. Every controversial story has its supporters, but supporting Dendreon has come at a high cost as the price has continued to break down on successive disappointments with the cancer vaccine Provenge.

I hope that with second quarter results in hand and a significant restructuring on the way, the argument will at last shift from whether Provenge is a great drug (it's not) to whether it's a salvageable business (it might be).

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DONE-Dreon?

Seeking Alpha: A Disappointing, But Not Altogether Surprising, Failure For JNJ And Pfizer

Some diseases are notoriously hard targets for new pharmaceutical development, and Alzheimer's may well be one of the worst. There are very few drugs on the market for the disease (Forest Labs' (FRX) Namenda and Pfizer's (PFE) Aricept are the two most prominent), but Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer, and Elan (ELN) hoped to defy the odds and bring a new Alzheimer's drug to market - bapineuzumab.

Unfortunately, Pfizer's news announcement Monday after the close largely brings that hope to an end.

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A Disappointing, But Not Altogether Surprising, Failure For JNJ And Pfizer

Seeking Alpha: Mind The Margins And Devices, But Johnson & Johnson Looks Alright

With the Synthes merger in hand, a new CEO in charge, and a rejuvenated pharmaceutical business, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is perhaps in the best shape it has been in in quite some time. By no means is this a flawless story, particularly as the device business seems to need some real work, but it looks as if the company has more going for it than against it at this point.

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Mind The Margins And Devices, But Johnson & Johnson Looks Alright

Seeking Alpha: For Dendreon There's A Little Light, But A Lot Of Tunnel

Volatile biotech Dendreon (DNDN) has been a painful lesson for some investors that there's a big difference between good technology and a good stock. The company deserves, and gets, plenty of credit for developing the first-ever cancer vaccine, but serious questions about efficacy, cost-benefit, competition and intrinsic profitability have lingered from the moment of approval Now that repeated sales disappoints have knocked the stock down significantly over the past year, the stock may at last be priced with more rational expectations in mind.

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For Dendreon There's A Little Light, But A Lot Of Tunnel

Seeking Alpha: Reconsidering The Case For Johnson & Johnson

I have not been what you would call a supporter of healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) in my articles on Seeking Alpha, my old article on why I sold the shares having generated quite a bit of controversy. Companies and stocks are not static entities, though, and every responsible investor owes it to themselves to revisit stories and theses from time to time.

In With The New
Quite a lot has changed at J&J over the past year. Although the device market is still pretty sluggish, the company has been active in shuffling its deck. The company decided to throw in the towel and cede the drug-coated stent market to the likes of Abbott Labs (ABT), Boston Scientific (BSX), and Medtronic (MDT), while significantly strengthening its orthopedics business with the acquisition of Synthes. Once this deal closes (probably in the first half of 2012), JNJ will be a much bigger player in spine and trauma.

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Reconsidering The Case For Johnson & Johnson

Investopedia: The Top Biotech Performers of 2011

This has really been a year of the "haves" versus the "have nots" in biotechnology. Although a few dedicated biotech ETFs have done rather well and there have been some huge individual outperforming stocks, the sector as a whole has not necessarily been all that strong. Still, for those companies that could deliver encouraging data, particularly in the fields of hepatitis and cancer, the market was more than willing to reward the stocks with a higher valuation.


Hepatitis C - The Story of 2011
If any one theme should leap out at biotech investors in 2011, it is the explosion of interest in companies targeting hepatitis C. It is not as though hepatitis C is a new disease, but a host of companies have finally developed compounds that look to offer major improvements in disease management and quality of life for the millions of people with this condition.

Two of the top three performing biotechs with current market capitalizations above $250 million are hepatitis C plays. Pharmasset (Nasdaq:VRUS) has delivered the sort of year that biotech investors dream about for 2011, with the stock up nearly 500% in the last year. The stock was already doing incredibly well on the basis of very strong clinical data in PSI-7977 trials - data that basically showed 100% response in early administration of the drug. This stock found another level, though, when Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq:GILD) stepped up and offered to pay a considerable premium to acquire the company.


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