Search / 33 posts tagged Amylin

Every so often, maybe once every 3 years, I need to be reminded why I have a rule to not buy individual biotech stocks. I remember now. This is the sector where people with a full time staff of analysts devoted to this 1 niche get regularly blown up.

No doubt, you have read about the brew ha ha over the type 2 diabetes medicine Byetta being linked to pancreatitis which lead to the death of a few (I believe around 6 cases at the last count, out of over a million prescriptions worldwide).

Some very conflicting reports coming out of Amylin Pharma (AMLN) - 4 "more" deaths but not "linked to the drug". I took some off the table yesterday in the $28s as I mentioned I would as it neared resistance ($29) so we only have about a 0.5% stake but the drama here is immense.

Byetta's back in the news, and once again not in a good way. "Amylin Reports Four Additional Deaths With Byetta" is how Reuters has it.As we wrote last week, the Byetta experience underscores some fundamental challenges facing the industry (and investors) in the new era of drug safety.

Companies report 4 new deaths with diabetes drug Newsvine - business Tue, 08/26/2008 - 20:25 Eli Lilly and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Tuesday reported four new deaths in patients taking Byetta, even as the companies tried to shore up the safety profile of their popular diabetes medication.

StreetInsider.com After-Hours Movers: Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: AMLN) 8% LOWER; Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Amylin reveal 4 additional deaths from Byetta GT Solar International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOLR) 8% LOWER; reports Q1 EPS of $0.03, versus a loss of $0.04 last year.

Lilly and Amylin Pharmaceuticals are saying there have been four deaths among patients with pancreatitis who took their Byetta diabetes drug, in addition to the two deaths reported last week by the FDA. Amylin says the four cases were not captured by the FDA, which received six reports of patients who developed hemorrhagic or necrotizing pancreatitis that required hospitalization.

The drugmaker has scheduled a teleconference call for 5 pm EST today about last week’s FDA advisory on Byetta, the diabetes med that is marketed with Amylin Pharmaceuticals. The agency found that deaths continue to be reported despite earlier government warnings.

I've been stating for a while now that this market has changed character - even as the bear market hit us in the winter we were still able to find pockets of strength where buying breakouts were rewarded. However, at this time instead of buying breakouts, the course of action appears to be (mostly) to buy the broken down stocks and wait for the rebound.

I'm following the "buy the busted stocks" instead of breakouts methodology, but breaking a rule on buying individual biotech stocks with today's purchase of Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN). This is one of the few biotechs I know pretty well, and have followd for quite a while - mostly due to its diabetes drug Byetta.