Fermion's Biotech Investing (All Welcome)

Too much biotech and they have done well, so I just wrote some out-of-the-money covered calls with expiry 1 month away to see if they will get exercised and I can unload some.

If they don't go that high, at least I get a few $K cash to add to living expenses. If they do, darn, I will be kicking myself for selling too soon. :)
 
My bold prediction is Gilead will keep climbing and hit $95 this year.
 
Speaking of GILD, I am not on the black on the shares I bought about 1 year ago. What a difference a couple of days made. :)

But as I mentioned, while I did not buy more GILD in the interim, I did a few others, plus ETFs. These work out well so far. Just do not want to push my luck.
 
NW-Bound said:
Speaking of GILD, I am not on the black on the shares I bought about 1 year ago. What a difference a couple of days made. :)

But as I mentioned, while I did not buy more GILD in the interim, I did a few others, plus ETFs. These work out well so far. Just do not want to push my luck.
Click to expand...

I assume you mean you are now in the black on GILD. Awesome!

I kind of wish I had kept all 30 covered calls on the 3000 shares instead of selling 2000 of them a couple months back. Everyone was doing so well in the S&P500 that I decided to just go with that. It is flat and Gilead is up 12% now.
 
Yes. I meant to write "I am [-]not[/-] now in the black..."

Anyway, the covered calls I wrote were only on 1/6 of all the biotech shares I hold. And I never sell all of anything anyway, and try to stay diversified.

What I have found is that if I do not own something, I will not remember to check it. So, I always keep at least 100 shares of an ETF in a sector so I can see how the sector is doing.
 
I'm in the black on the GILD shares bought early last year, but not the ones in the low 90's two years ago. Hope springs eternal! I considered buying in the low 60's but already had a full position, unfortunately.

Fidelity Biotech and Select Healthcare have been on fire YTD, which helps on the GILD issue.


Fermion said:
I assume you mean you are now in the black on GILD. Awesome!

I kind of wish I had kept all 30 covered calls on the 3000 shares instead of selling 2000 of them a couple months back. Everyone was doing so well in the S&P500 that I decided to just go with that. It is flat and Gilead is up 12% now.
Click to expand...
 
I used a small portion of my Endocyte profits today to take starter positions in two nanocap biotechs.

2000 shares of CLSN at $3.71 and 2000 shares of PULM at $2.21

Stay tuned and watch Fermion go from boom to bust. :nonono:
 
Fermion said:
I used a small portion of my Endocyte profits today to take starter positions in two nanocap biotechs.

2000 shares of CLSN at $3.71 and 2000 shares of PULM at $2.21

Stay tuned and watch Fermion go from boom to bust. :nonono:
Click to expand...

I have been in and out of PULM but have not liked the action so currently out. I do like the concept though.

Have some lunch money in ECYT and bought near the lows today. Hope to get out tomorrow.

I continue to work EXAS hard and loaded up with its fall today. Will sell as it approaches $49. Rinse and repeat until earnings which is Oct 31 I believe.
 
EXAS did amazingly well from when you mentioned it.

One extremely small bio that is interesting to me is KTOV because it is nearing end of phase III but getting not a lot of love. The problem is it is an Israeli company which has issued some ADRs that trade on NASDAQ. I have had ADRs in the past and do not like the fees involved with them nor the lack of transparency in reporting.
 
Fermion said:
EXAS did amazingly well from when you mentioned it.
Click to expand...

It was a great find and have done extremely well by it. More importantly though, it helps prevent colon cancer. So many over 50 refuse to get tested by a colonoscopy. EXAS is still in its infancy.
 
Well that CLSN is up 11% from where I bought it yesterday. Nice to pick something going the right direction for once. Not going to make a fortune here though since I only bought 2000 shares.
 
Fermion said:
Well that CLSN is up 11% from where I bought it yesterday. Nice to pick something going the right direction for once. Not going to make a fortune here though since I only bought 2000 shares.
Click to expand...

I'll take 11% any day! I'll keep my eye on CLSN.

As predicted, EXAS moved north. Sold 4000+ shares netting around $5K+. Will look for an entry tomorrow.

Sold my position in ECYT when it popped for about 10 minutes then retreated. Can't take your eye off the screen for even a minute.

RYTM has large daily movements. Missed an opportunity today. Not for the faint of heart.

Non Bio:

When ROKU dumped at the end of the day, purchased a small position. Up in after hours. Also bought some LL after dropping a buck plus.
 
Actually CLSN ended the day up 24% instead of 11%. Crazy. I didn't sell any yet.
 
CLSN is up another 13% today at $5.23 after being up 25% yesterday.

Sigh. I should have moved a lot more over into that, dang. Oops, it is $5.27 now.
 
Sold 1000 of CLSN at $5.56, letting the other 1000 ride.

Biotech investing is like taking a walk on the wild side.
 
Gilead's purchase of KITE paying off as they just got FDA approval for the new cancer drug, priced at $373,000 a pop.

It is a quite expensive and extensive process to generate this drug so you will not ever see this one for $1 a pill in India. Still, it does have a 51% cure rate, not bad for that type of cancer, which makes $373,000 pretty much a bargain.
 
NW-Bound said:
It is not a drug per se, but an immunotherapy process where they take white blood cells from the patient, then culture the cells to kill cancer cells and return them to the patient.

See: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/health/immunotherapy-cancer-kite.html.
Click to expand...

Yes, I knew that :LOL: I was just trying to simplify things. Congress is sure going to call it a drug when they balk at the price, even though it is $100k cheaper than Novartis.

This one will never go generic...way too complicated. The only issue will be competing gene therapies.
 
I knew that you knew. But it is more informative to let people know a bit more about why the cure costs $373K.

Don't know how it is done, but people will not be happy until it costs $100. :)

Forget what they say about a human life is invaluable. When it comes to paying, they are willing to pay only that much. :facepalm:
 
Last edited:

Most people don't have $373 K to spend on a "cure" that has only a 51% chance of working. I'm sure Medicare won't cover much more than the first $1000, if that.
 
True that most people do not have that much in their total net worth. So, what do we do, other than let some people die? Or ban it for everybody?

By the way, I do not follow medical news, but just found out that, as Fermion said, Novartis has the 1st immunotherapy treatment approved in August. The cost is $475K, and Novartis said if it does not work, the patient, or rather his heirs, gets the money back.

I find it encouraging that although immunotherapy has been talked about for years, they finally get something that works, though not all the times. It is meant for patients who have no other hope left. The reaction and side effects are also severe.
 
Bought 500 shares of Celgene this morning at $121.50. May be a little oversold on reaction to cancellation of Crohn's trial.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Any McDonald's Shareholders?
Replies
10
Views
692
MichealKnight
M
M
Should I Sell?
2 3
Replies
69
Views
4K
l8_apex
L
M
Investing extra money and possible recession 2024
Replies
6
Views
1K
DrRoy
DrRoy
Tranquility Base
Borrowing Against Investment Portfolio For Home Purchase
Replies
15
Views
470
pb4uski
pb4uski
S
Just invested heavily in Treasury Notes
2
Replies
38
Views
4K
hotwired
H

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom