Monday, December 6, 2010

What's up with Analyst down grade of SGEN

I read that an analyst had downgraded Seattle Genetics a month ago based on the size of the target market for SGEN's molecule for lymphoma.  From Seeking Alpha:
 
Seattle Genetics (SGEN) saw several changes after its stock price rose from $12 to around $16 over the last month. The cancer drug specialist was upgraded by Leerink Swann to Outperform and initiated at Outperform by Piper Jaffrey. But it was downgraded by JP Morgan to Neutral from Overweight and to Sell from Hold by Breann Muray. Canaccord Genuity initiated coverage with a sell rating and $10 target. Some analysts believe the prospects for the company’s B-Vedotin lymphoma drug currently in trials are already reflected in the stock price and that the market for the drug is not that large.

 I think the analyst are  missing the point as recent article on SGEN's clinical trial results states that the ADC technology will extend patent life on many of today's monoclonal antibodies in use today. In addition, this technology is a near term advancement and will not need long term investments to get a drug to market. I predict that the ADC technology, piggybacked on the advancement cancer biomarker bio-infomatics will help many patients with cancer in the near future.