October 11, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
CHICAGO – If you’re looking to bolster your investment portfolio with biotech stocks, analysts at the Motley Fool believe you should remember the “ABC Formula”—Amgen , Biogen and Celgene .
Fool analyst Keith Speights points to these three biotech companies as the best choices on return for investors.
Amgen saw strong growth in the second quarter from seven of its products, including the well-established anti-inflammatory drug, Enbrel, and the multiple myeloma drug Kyprolis. Speights also points out that although sales of Repatha have been sluggish due to its price point, sales should begin to increase and become a “big winner” for Amgen. Repatha, a PCSK9 inhibitor, was approved last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat two rare genetic diseases known for high LDL-C, as well as patients who have atherosclerotic CV disease. In September, Repatha met its endpoints in a Phase III trial for coronary disease that would allow the expanded use of the drug to fight cardiovascular disease.
Amgen will also likely see a boost from its newly-approved biosimilar to AbbVie’s Humira. On Sept. 23, the FDA approved Amjevita for the treatment of seven inflammatory diseases, including moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis, moderate-to-severe polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis, adult moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease and moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis.
Shares of Amgen are slightly down this morning, trading at $166.30 as of 10:12 a.m.
Biogen has been on a bit of a roll with its multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera continuing to see growth, bringing in $987 million in the most recent quarter. Speights points out that the company has another MS drug, Plegridy, which saw growth of 65 percent in the second quarter. In addition to MS, Biogen has been leading the charge in developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and Speights calls the company’s aducanumab a “potential game changer.”
Biogen is in the process of spinning off a new hemophilia company, Bioverativ, with two approved drugs, Alprolix and Electate, which generated combined revenue of about $500 million in 2015. Both drugs are projected to double the revenue. While the drugs are scheduled to leave Biogen, Speights points out that they are still solid earners for the company.
Shares of Biogen are down this morning, trading at $300.59 as of 10:14 a.m.
Celgene is seeing strong growth through the numerous partnerships the company has forged with the likes of Juno Therapeutics , Jounce Therapeutics, bluebird bio , Agios , Epizyme and more. Celgene’s partnership goals has been a strategic effort to diversify revenue streams so it is not so financially dependent on its blockbuster blood cancer drug, Revlimid. Speights though, points out that Celgene has a number of other strong earners in its pipeline, including multiple myeloma drug Pomalyst and Otezla, which treats plaque psoriasis.
Celgene has several potentially strong revenue generators in development as well, including Crohn’s disease treatment mongersen and MS drug, ozanimod. Mongersen is also in a mid-stage study for ulcerative colitis and ozanimod is also being explored as a potential treatment for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s, Speights said.
