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Point well taken.
BTW, Looks like it's easy to move the market on this. Just bought 11K shares and moved it up 20 cents
aj
Nerf, just took a look at the short position and it looks good from the perspective of a long who expects to see approval. Currently, 3.7 million short, up from 3.18 a month ago.
Baby short squeeze coming when approval hits, IMO.
aj
Not a physicist, but I wonder how much energy was necessary via the radiofrequency generator to get a flame that looked like it could produce about 5 watts of power.
It's not such a big deal when the energy equation doesn't really work out and my big question is why didn't this distinguished engineer comment on this.
Too bad there isn't more interest in using fresnel prisms (those screens that were standard in the last round of projection big screen TV's) to capture solar heat and create steam turbine generated electrical power. There are literally 100,000's of deisel generators laying around unused, waiting to play a role as emergency backup power sources for hospitals, critical business etc. Each of these could be retrofitted to also produce steam generated electricity using an array of fresnel prisms. see the link below:
http://xenotechresearch.com/solfurn1.htm
a smart high school student will one day be cranking these things out and making a mint.
regards
aj
Dewophile, you said it much better than I did. That is the point I am trying to make with regard to the military's interest.
regards
aj
I should have qualified my response. I know intranasal ketamine works, I meant to say "if intranasal ketamine works for combat victims with the same clinical efficacy it has in the clinincal trials."
regards
aj
LGND: No, I sold out in early 2006 when it made a run to about $14. The sales of its opiate drug (supposed to keep it healthy with cash flow) never did what it was supposed to, and I got the feeling that its cancer drug candidates were something akin to watching PPHM, so I got out. Just looked at the chart and the "dividend" killed the share value.
aj
JAV
I've seen few, if any, comments on the apparent support that JAV is getting from the US govt via the military. It would appear to me that the military would like to have the option of some potent pain management drugs that are non-opiate in nature. Given the reason(s) for pain management in the active military and the baggage that comes along with combat wounds (psychological trauma, with a potential for addiction to drugs that are both body and mind numbing), I'm certain that this support is deep. The thinking may even go deeper as the military/medical complex wants to minimize the complications of opiate dependence from the many service connected VA patients in the system. If intranasal ketamine works, there is apossibility that the whole VA/military treatment system will attempt to move away from the use of opiate meds.
Food for thought
aj
I can't speak for dew, but I've tracked PPHM since before it was PPHM (can't even recall its name before the change.) Got the tip from a physician in a physician lounge chat. In the 7+ years that I've watched, it's done NOTHING but dilute itself.
Kinda reminds me of LGND. Here, I bought on a similar conversation, lost money and dumped, bought in again at a bottom, sold for a likely break even (after the first loss) and have forgotten about it until I just saw its ticker crawl on CNBC at $6/share. Also a BIG disappointment in the long run.
aj
Re: Niacin regimen
I take it W/O a Dr.'s advise, but with full agreement pot hoc.
aj
Are you two trying "flush free" niacin. I buy mine at a local Target and the store carries two brands (the one I have now is Target Brand, Inositol Hexanicotinate). neither has given me any problems with the flushing, up to 2 gr.
Don't go to a health food store, they mark the niacin up quite a bit. My 1000 mg dose costs about 30 cents (Traget brand), but I'm going to push it up to 2 gr given the reporting here. The other brand is a bit more expensive, but still around 50 cents per 1 gr dose.
aj
CRDC- Don't be too quick to laugh, heart port CABG has been around for a while and is a MINIMALLY invasive technique that has some proponents. I've seen several patients who've had it done and they liked it alot given what the patients had seen with chest cracking open heart surgery. This updated technique has some connection to the DaVinci robot surgical technique from ISRG and ANYTHING connected to that equipment has the potential to become white hot.
aj
RFJ, thanks for the work to start this board.
There is considerable overlap below, but I'm posting my tracking list of high yield opportunites, culled from your posts, others' and my own DD particularly in the MLP arena.
BKCC ADVDX AGD AOD AWP BEP ERH FRO HTE NRI PFN PHT HQH BSD BPT PAA ETP SXL APL OKS MMP HEP EEP TPP KMP TCLP KMR BPL TLP HQL
regards
aj
O/T Combination therapy:
ThomasS, you didn't tell us whether or not you used an "assembly design" single subject protocol, so I'm not sure what the contributions to your success are regarding the components. [ wink and ;) ]
Care to run a dissembling design? Take each of your components away and report on the BP and cholesteral results. I'm rooting for the alcohol!
aj
From where I sit, it looks like the republican administration has already calculated that they have more to win by allowing this credit debacle to play out, so that, when the full effect hits, the democratic administration (which the republicans have already conceded will sweep into office in 2008) will get the blame. Most of the losers of homes will be democratic "republican wannabes" better known as upwardly mobile climbers who have leveraged their personal finances to the hilt in an attempt to reach the next level of wealth, and those will be the ones to "flip" back to republican voter rolls at midterm (2010) and the big game in 2012.
FWIW and all I'll contribute to this
aj
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cordaptive would be just another prescription drug analogue for the already easy to obtain and CHEAP over the counter flush free niacin. I don't care what the antiflushing agent is in cordaptive.
I've taken 1000 mg of flush free niacin for several years and have the 20% decline in LDL. It's a no brainer
aj
Thanks for the follow-up on IVIG treatment for Alzheimer's Disease. I ran some searches to see if anyone was looking into blood serum production on a large scale via ANY method, and could find nothing. This still begs the question of where the biotech engineering would come from. Stem cell researchers in the bone marrow labs like the ones working on leukemia and multiple myeloma?
Collecting human blood for separation of serum and immunoglobulins would never start to address the need here IF IVIG treatment demonstrated any efficacy (although the market for blood donation would skyrocket and prices paid to donors would as well.)
regards
aj
First and last reply on High Yield.
I'd like to see you start such a board as I'm relatively young and want to learn MUCH more about income generating investment (after, of course, I make bundles of money on biotech.)
Please post here if you do start a board.
regards
aj
OT: Stress
As a psychologist, I don't want to touch your argument(s).
A good start for you would be to pick up and Read Hans Selye's seminal book on stress entitled "The Stress of Life" It's a good starting point for understanding a basic view of the interaction of physiological and psychological stress.
regards
aj
JAV
"Appears to be headed back into the toilet, for some reason. Surprising because the approval for marketing in the UK (which in my opinion is all but a done deal) should be coming in the next 2 weeks or so."
It all depends on your entry point. When I bought at $4.40 and then it tested $4, I thought that once again, my purchase had brought the kiss of death to a stock. As of today, I'm quite happy that it's "settling" in the low $5 range before the much anticipated announcement.
regards
aj
I completely agree that health, in essence, is easily achieved through these two simple principles: Be active enough to be able to keep your heart rate raised to 90% max (for age) for 30 minutes each day, and, take in only as many calories as you burn each day.
Of course, if everyone did this, this board would have little to talk about with the exception of genetics-based cancer treatments.
aj
Let's not stop there. If we are to ration, let's start with rationing the McDonald's, Burger King and Coca Cola. The obesity problem in this country is like global warming, everyone knows it's happening and no one will take the responsibility to stop it.
Our Endocrinology clinic is booming, I do several Lap Band surgery pre-eval's per week, my case load of vascular dementia patients is much larger than it should be because of diabetes, hypertension and obesity!
aj
OK, so I can tell you that for my procedure codes, the last year saw nominal cuts; there was a real dollar decrease for several of the codes.
On the other point in my previous point (re: medicare not paying for mistakes) our local business section ran an article today about the unintended consequences for this ruling, namely that defensive medicine will increase, the number of diagnostic tests for patients will increase and the burden on medicare will increase. I'm sure that these changes are not what the brains behind this move had in mind, but it will keep me busy as hell (I evaluate dementia and risk for assessing need of level of patient supervision.)
It would also be an area for value investing as the need to identify pre-existing infection will skyrocket for patient admissions. I knw that RPBIF is working on a rapid infection panel test, but I'm sure there are better investment opportunities out there. Any suggestions?
aj
Where will the primary care come from for medicare patients?
Davidal66, don't know what kind of doc you are, but there will always be some doctors providing this care. I work in a Senior Health clinic, which is hospital based (meaning the hospital gets to charge for facility fees on top of my professional fees) and we ENCOURAGE medicare patients to become our regular patients. The hospital has set up sister clinics with endocrinology, wound care, and we're trying to recruit a psychiatrist.
Cuts coming to my practice would hurt, but compared to the absolute BS that I have to put up with in order to get authorization for procedures (I'm a neuropsychologist) from private insurance, I WELCOME medicare and will ride out even the cuts, should they come.
The bluster about medicare not paying for medical mistakes is another issue and I am sure that there will be much change and honing of when and if this will happen before it does happen.
regards
aj
Tim, I'm not sure what you mean when you ask nominal vs real vs what reimbursement where (sp) planned to have been, but as a medicare provider, I read our trade publications to mean that real YOY reimbursement will be cut 10%.
I have seen colleagues drop like flies over the last 5 years as they have not been able to keep up with the cost of doing business with medicare while their office costs, office space costs, instrument/technology costs and insurance costs all continue to rise. In addition to this, medicare has made it more and more difficult to follow-up on billing errors (often that they make) and the level of staffing of real people on the phone is getting worse. Trying to get their errors corrected is getting near to impossible.
regards
aj
ARAY
Tina Marie, you can put me on that list anytime! If I make the money that should be made on ARAY, I'll buy the champagne, the Jägermeister, tequila or whatever your heart desires.
The flower is a turnon.
aj
ARAY If you liked it yesterday, you're gonna love it moving forward (at least if you haven't bought yet.)
Today, they are off 28% after missing on revenues by a couple hundred thousand, but missing earnings by 2 cents.
Tina Marie, I'm watching closely, when the dust settles, this will be one real value.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=ARAY
aj
JAV. Hindsight is 20/20, but I'm very happy to have bought on the technical dip in the low $4 range on JAV. I bought because it looked like it was oversold with the nervous stomach types dumping. Now looks to be respectable again and ready for the announcements that everyone seems to think are de facto.
aj
"How many different antibodies does IVIG contain?"
Intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) was initially shown to be effective in autoimmune idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) in 1981 (Imbach, 1981). IVIGs are sterile, purified immunoglobulin G (IgG) products manufactured from pooled human plasma and typically contain more than 95% unmodified IgG, which has intact Fc-dependent effector functions and only trace amounts of immunoglobulin A (IgA) or immunoglobulin M (IgM) (Rutter, 2001).
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3546.htm
Absolutely fascinating and peaks my interest as an Alzheimer's specialist. I have seen nothing in the literature about this, but would say that this has a potential for adding to an effective "cocktail" of drugs, and I'd be particularly interested in seeing this combined with Myriad's Flurizan.
IVIG is a human blood product, very expensive and in VERY SHORT supply. The question for the board is, where do people see the potential for manufacture? Is a GTBC-like co. capable of the genetic engineering to pull of the MASSIVE quantities of this immunoglobulin therapy that will be called for?
aj
CVTX, Soliciting any opinions
Looking at this co. after a recommendation from a cardiologist in the CAMH camp. News of its lead drug, Ranexa (ranolazine), already approved for chronic angina, appears good, including data that the drug lowers blood sugar. There is a possibility that the indication(s) for the drug will be widened.
The share value has been hammered of late:
http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?page=charting&mode=basics&symbol=CVTX%60&selected=CVT...
There is talk about the need for the co. to dilute in order to raise the cash necessary to bolster the sales staff enough to really impact the bottom line here, but other opinions include the likelihood of a partnership.
Any comments will be appreciated.
aj
SCII
PL, I acquired this little stem cell co. via RM and a couple of RS's from what started out as an internet penny stock in the late 90's (at least that is my best recall). I have all of 25 shares to show for the investment and it is so small that I wouldn't bother selling it until and unless something dramatic occurs.
I keep it on my list and read their PR's, most of which come from some clinic in the Ukraine (LOL) where they periodically announce some miracle result of treatment with their stem cell technology.
I have noted before that I appreciate your posts as among the best here (you are able to supply an aggregation of biotech information that would take hours to do on my own) and understand that your posts should be taken FWIW. I just wanted to chime in because, as an exception to the rule, I probably know a little more about this co. than you or other readers know.
regards
aj
"Stem Cell Therapy International Inc, a leading research and development company in the regenerative medicine field, announced that it has acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to a new, U.S. Patent Pending anti-rejection umbilical cord blood stem cell technology."
PL, I own a couple of shares of this co. and can't even tell you why or how except to say that it is the result of several reverse mergers of several VERY speculative stocks I dabbled with in the past.
I've seen NOTHING in the last two years from SCII that would indicate that they are legitimate. If you have any opinions and/or evidence otherwise, I'd like to see it, but I'm posting now because I see this co. as a scam.
regards,
aj
JAV
This is my first buy as a result of monitoring this board (along with a little prodding from Lumpy.) Dew's forwarding of 4 reports from analysts' and the comments here were enough to take a dip.
I quintupled my position yesterday to 6K shares. I'm not a technical expert, but IMO, the likelyhood that JAV will revisit its $3 low is unlikely.
The co. looks like a solid utility player, capable of several "base hits"
aj
FWIW on SEPR
As a practitioner who has to decide about recommendations for sleep meds, there is no contest when I can recommend generic ambien, which is much cheaper and JUST as effective (without the taste side effects) as Lunesta. In fact, I have been using Rozerem (ramelteon) more frequently as a first line sleep maintenance drug intervention.
When these don't work, again, use of a generic (clonazepam) is more likely to be effective and much cheaper (about 50 cents per dose vs. $4)
aj
"..the alliance with CAMH was not the reason STJ picked up ICD market share in the latest quarter. Rather, the reason is that STJ sells the lowest-cost ICD’s of the Big 3 and this is the market segment where the recent uptick was concentrated."
I'm sure that this alliance is far too young to generate any measurable increase in sales. My point was simply to point out that this multibillion dollar co. is now specifically referencing a microcap (that I am VERY long in) as a partner in their strategy for increasing ICD sales further.
IMO, St. Jude is not going to be the no. 3 player in this space for long. The strategy WILL generate measurable sales increases (there is good anecdotal data from pilot marketing done by the two co.'s) and the word will get around in the EP/cardiologist community that having a heartwave-2 and a policy of screening as many "at risk" patients as can be managed in the practice will increase the number of referrals.
Besides, STJ is the only player without the taint of defective product (I'm looking for some wood to knock on) and they have the cheapest ICD to boot!
regards
aj
"St Jude Beats the Street
[ICD sales are on the mend, evidently.]"
And STJ specifically referenced CAMH in their CC. Listen the CC after minute 50:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=eventDetails&c=73836&
It's clear to the CAMH longs that STJ has in place a strategy for using MTWA as a catalyst for increased ICD sales via developing a more thorough screening program.
Today's CAMH drop below $4 is a disappointment to the faithful, but I see it as a great buying opportunity. For those on the fence, the CC is a must listen.
regards
aj
"Bleeding people used to be state of the art medical care -- in retrospect that wasn't such a great practice."
Oh, I'm not so sure about that,
http://altmedicine.about.com/b/a/096152.htm
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has for the first time cleared the commercial marketing of leeches for medicinal purposes. Leeches have been used as an alternative treatment to blood-letting and amputation for several thousand years. They reached their height of medicinal use in the mid- 1800’s. Today they are used in medicine throughout the world as tools in skin grafts and reattachment surgery.
"ULGX - not sure if it's biotech"
Sure it is. I've had this on my tracking list for years as well. The co. appears to be waiting for some sales momentum, which may be due to adoption issues and the small size of the sales staff. Any advance in the science in treating BPH is going to be a tough sell when a patient is confronted with the choice of taking a pill or allowing someone to cath them. That said, if the procedure is as painless as the co. reports, it will continue to gain advocates.
regards
aj
Must be some sort of retirement community populated with wall street retirees who know so much about how to manipulate the market with scams, they can do it for fun and extra cruise ship money.
aj
In the interest of general board members who may have some thoughts about buying Vicor (VCRT.OB) as a secondary play in the MTWA space that is now being occupied soley by CAMH.OB.
The issue of this company providing "competition" to CAMH.OB has been addressed twice before by our group at RagingBull. Vicor, IMO, fits the category of "scam" operation that this board was set out to identify. A cursory review of publicly available data starting on yahoo (not the best source) raises the first red flags:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=VCRT.OB
The page demonstrates that there is much to be learned about a co. that has been in business since 2000 (the year after CAMH.OB started publishing about MTWA in the peer reviewed journals.) Further investigation on NASDAQ.COM reveals similar lack of information about fundamentals. Insiders appear to be selling and there are no institutional investors:
http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/Holdings.asp?symbol=VCRT&selected=VCRT&page=holdingssummary
Finally, a review of the SEC filings reveal that the co. has woefully poor sales, despite their ongoing VITAL trial. Even for tiny research co.'s, clinical trial related equipment supplied through supported research is often booked as sales. A review of the last filing reveal that the co. had $12K in sales in the last quarter and less than $800K in sales since inception of the co. in 2000.
From the last 10QSB
"VICOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
(A D EVELOPMENT S TAGE C OMPANY)
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
F OR THE T HREE M ONTHS E NDED M ARCH 31, 2006 AND 2007 AND
FROM A UGUST 4, 2000 (I NCEPTION) TO M ARCH 31, 2006 AND 2007
(U NAUDITED)
Three months ended March 31 Inception to March 31,
2006 2007 2006 2007
Revenues $7,000 $12,000 $817,000 $844,000
Operating expenses
Research and development
172,000 738,000 11,610,000 13,050,000
Selling, general and administrative
405,000 804,000 17,288,000 20,413,000
Depreciation and Amortization
11,000 11,000 157,000 209,000
Interest 26,000 853,000 344,000 2,121,000
Total operating expenses
614,000 2,406,000 29,399,000 35,793,000
Loss before dividend
(607,000)2,394,000)28,582,000) (34,949,000)
Dividend related to Series A preferred stock
11,000 12,000 (101,000) (149,000)
Net loss applicable to common stock
$(618,000)(2,406,000)(28,683,000)(35,098,000)
Net loss per common share – basic and diluted
(0.04) (0.15)
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding 14,709,112 16,043,713 "
Nobody's buying their products and there appears to be no real progress in the VITAL trial. I look for what's NOT being said about this pivotal trial, particularly that while Harvard is being used as a hook, no PI is identified. While a CRC has been named, with a target of several hundred sites, no information regarding the number of sites signed up and/or initiated has been provided.
This co. fits the classic "Pump and Dump" with insiders probably holding most of the shares, where press releases are provided to mislead but not overtly lie about the development(s) of the co.
regards
aj
(PS, I apologize for the poorly spaced info; thought I had it right, but the posting doesn't carry the tabs/spaces that I set from the tables)
I'll prolong the discussion for one more post. With regard to SPECIFICTY, CAMH's MTWA is near perfect, with 97-99% negative predictive value. That's exactly what one wants with a screening test, good old fashioned rule out power.
With all due respect, urche, the EP community doesn't like the fact that this noninvasive, highly specific, and inexpensive test will lose them invasive EP study business.
Are you an EP?
aj