Turns out there was some weird trading of Dendreon's shares
yesterday afternoon; this was right before trading on the stock was
stopped ahead of presentation of the data for the company's prostate
fighter, Provenge, at the American Urological Association's annual
meeting.
The data looked good. Really good. But the stock was trading down
45% right before trading was stopped for the data presentation.
We already knew Provenge had passed
its pivotal phase 3 trial, but the data confirmed that the treatment
can get past the FDA and it suggests how well Provenge might sell.
Provenge extended survival by 4.1 months compared to placebo, which
should be good enough for approval and fairly robust sales. The current
treatment for advanced prostate cancer, sanofi-aventis
' (NYSE: SNY) Taxotere, extends survival by about 2.5 months. In
addition to the apparent longer survival, Taxotere is a nasty
chemotherapy agent with horrible side effects compared to Provenge,
which has relatively minimal side effects.
So what have we learned from yesterday?
Put stop losses on stable companies like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) or Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) if you must, but stop losses can cause a lot of pain on more volatile stocks like Dendreon, Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), and Citigroup (NYSE: C).
If
you missed getting in on the soap opera or got stopped-out with a
cameo, there's still plenty of time to buy Dendreon. The company plans
to amend its marketing application in the fourth quarter, which would
push a potential FDA approval back until this time next year.
More Foolishness:
still own GM, do you?Oh no! My stock has surged!This Fool lost $100,000 without even trying.
© 2009 UCLICK, L.L.C.
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