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Thanks Flo.
Any insight from our experts on how much an impact this will have if any?
I concur. Cheers and good luck!
U.S. rekindles insider trading push, charges hedge fund's Valvani
Business | Wed Jun 15, 2016 3:04pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fraud-insidertrading-idUSKCN0Z11TB
A portfolio manager at hedge fund Visium Asset Management LP was criminally charged on Wednesday with insider trading, in one of the biggest such cases since a 2014 court ruling made it harder for U.S. prosecutors to pursue them.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan accused Sanjay Valvani of fraudulently making at least $25 million off tips from former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official Gordon Johnston about that agency's approval of pending generic drug applications.
Valvani also passed some of these tips to Christopher Plaford, then a Visium portfolio manager, who made his own illegal trades, prosecutors said.
"Sadly these are schemes we see time and time again, where lies and use of non-public information profits those conducting the crimes, and everyday investors lose out," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez said in a statement.
The government also accused Plaford and Stefan Lumiere, another former Visium portfolio manager, of fraudulently inflating the value and liquidity of a fund they oversaw by getting "sham" price quotations from brokers, in an effort to prevent investors from demanding their money back.
"AN INNOCENT MAN"
Valvani, 44, of Brooklyn, New York, was charged with five counts including securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Lumiere, 45, of New York, was charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy.
Both were arrested on Wednesday and expected to appear that day in the federal court in Manhattan.
Plaford, 38, of Bedford, New York, and Johnston, 64, of Olney, Maryland, pleaded guilty earlier this month to related charges and are cooperating with prosecutors.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against all four defendants.
"Sanjay Valvani is an innocent man whose investment decisions were always based on rigorous and entirely appropriate research and analysis," his lawyer Barry Berke said in a statement.
Berke also accused Bharara of "stretching the facts and law to try to transform entirely innocent trading decisions into a crime."
Lumiere's lawyer Eric Creizman and Plaford's lawyer David Smith declined to comment. Visium and a lawyer for Johnston did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Visium is based in New York, and was not charged.
Bharara has won dozens of insider trading convictions over the last several years, including of hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam and Steven A. Cohen's firm SAC Capital Advisors.
But he was dealt a big setback when the federal appeals court in New York in December 2014 voided his convictions of hedge fund managers Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson.
That court said that to win convictions, prosecutors needed to show that traders knew the people who provided inside tips received something consequential in exchange.
A MOMENTA TIP
Founded in 2005 by Jason Gottlieb, who has a medical degree, Visium oversees about $7 billion of assets. Last month, The Wall Street Journal said investors asked to redeem about $1.5 billion after news of the federal probes surfaced.
The Visium Global multi-strategy fund gained 10.2 percent in 2015, and the Visium Balanced healthcare fund rose 5.6 percent.
Valvani's alleged scheme ran from 2005 to 2011, centered on "political intelligence" that Johnston, working as a Visium consultant, got from a former colleague at the FDA, where he was once deputy director of the Office of Generic Drugs.
According to court papers, Visium paid Johnston hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, but Valvani asked its chief financial officer in a Jan. 6, 2010 email to offer a raise.
Johnston "is without question the most valuable consultant I've ever worked with and I'm pushing to reinforce the value of the relationship and encourage him to continue to go above and beyond for our team," Valvani allegedly wrote.
Prosecutors said he did just that, sending tips about the FDA approval process for the first generic equivalent to Sanofi SA's (SASY.PA) Lovenox, for treating deep vein thrombosis.
According to court papers, Valvani made $25 million after a generic from Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc (MNTA.O) won approval in July 2010, causing that stock to rise 82 percent in one day.
Valvani soon sold his Momenta stock, and closed out bets that Sanofi's stock would fall because of the new competition, prosecutors said.
The SEC said Valvani reaped another $7 million by later selling Momenta short, based on tips that Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc might also win approval for a Lovenox generic.
These trades helped Valvani receive bonuses topping $11.5 million in 2010 and $10.5 million in 2011, dwarfing his $2.5 million bonus in 2009, the SEC said.
Prosecutors said Valvani called Johnston in January 2011 to end their relationship, "in the wake of news reports of insider trading investigations."
the "coincidence" is quite amazing, really. lol. MNTA somehow help up well...Have a great weekend everyone
Do we know if MNTA gets a milestone from Sandoz if they hit the one year sole Gx anniversary?
Ah the updated readme first boost is in play today! :)
That's not my point, obviously
Jbog: just a quick reminder Sandoz is the one setting the 20mg strategy, not MNTA
Symphony looks similar. Will post when I have some time later.
Jbog, any thoughts on TEVAs comments they don't expect another 20mg Gx this year? Why would they even say that or how would they even know?
anything enox case related or same old same old?
If you say so. I've never thought or interpreted that way. The deal was pretty transparent from the first PR to the CC shortly after it. This is my last post on the subject so feel free to have the last word.
Yeah but it's been like that for a bout a year now. He's still got some automatic selling to do I guess :P
lol.
that was more for some of the posters who were so irate with the the MYL deal & milestones and all that. Point is Mylan is paying 50% for everything in this deal.
"true 50/50 deal across the board" CW just reiterated.
On a side note, he is just so much better than shea it's not even close. They need to stop sending Shea out there
At the current share price, I don't think anyone is waiting on anything (and i wouldn't hold my breath on that enox award anytime soon if ever)
MNTA's 2016 financial outlook
At December 31, 2015, Momenta had $350.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
The 2016 burn rate is $45m to $55m so that's $200m for the year.
MYL paid a $45m upfront payment for the partnership and will pay an additional $60m this year in "milestones".
There is a baseline for Glatopa sales at $15m a Q. Let's assume TEVA is correct and no other Gx 20mg gets approved in 2016. That's $60m in glatopa revenue to MNTA (is there a year 1 miletone for sole approval?).
So by the end of 2016, MNTA should still have north of $300m on their balance sheet.
While obviously Glatopa uptake is going far slower than anyone except TEVA would like, I think I'm missing the idea of financial mishandling that others on the board seem to think is happening at Momenta (planned selling & no open market buying aside)
On another note, it really seems like Sandoz is playing the 20mg super cautious so the 40mg market stays robust (and TEVA also kicking ass at what they do best).
Well there seems to be some sort of plan in place as MNTA has already said they'll recieve $60m of the "milestones" in 2016 (I don't see the big deal with the term and the structure is nothing new from what they originally stated with the deal, but whatever)
Is that what I think it is?? MNTA GREEN!?!?!?!? :)
FWIW it seems brokers are tightening margin reqs on MNTA. Probably not helping things
there's your single digits. What's MNTAs EV at this point? Like $250m?
Pretty bold statement even for TEVA at this point. Why even say such a thing?
Welp, there goes the 52 week low.
Anyone catch the Stifel report? Apparantly they reaffirmed their buy rating (PT $29) and considered the biosimilars adcomm to be a positive for mnta
Hi Jbog,
Seems about right based on Rx #s. Any predictions on MNTA's share since this is the first real full Q?
Would you happen to have IMS #s from Friday? I'll have symphony this Friday for last 2 weeks
they should let James Roach speak more often esp over Mr. Shea.
Symphony Rx #s
1-8
NrX
Copax: 2727 Glatopa: 252 Total: 2979
TrX
Copax: 11289 Glatopa: 895 Total: 12184
12-31
NrX
Copax: 2245 Glatopa: 117 Total: 2362
TrX
Copax: 9966 Glatopa: 627 Total: 10593
How important were these formulation patents for Humira's IP?
tks for clarifying. feel free to delete my posts alluding to it then!
Well they won't be getting MNTAs bond at least per AMPHs own admission :P
FWIW JPM conferences is a good listen. Really enjoyed the Orencia story and I implore everyone to check out the Humira fob PK study slide. Impressive stuff. Also some good tidbits about why Glatopa is only at 30% for the 20mg (summary: TEVA is kicking Sandoz's ass, at least for now as it takes time to catch up to TEVA's moves).
For thrice weekly CW really harped on the fact that you'll need a 20mg formulation to get approved for the thrice weekly, which of course MNTA is the only one that has. Maybe I'm reading too much into it (and it's impossible to know of course), but doesn't seem like he unduly concerned about another entrant any time soon (watch synthon get approved tomorrow).
Anyway, rough day/year for bios all around, but I think MNTA will put up some nice returns in 2016.
And specifically for JBog: You've obviously been pretty vocal that MNTAs biosim strategy won't work. Do you still think that way even after Mylan has validated what they are doing?
how do you figure? They'll burn through $100m this year before any m-copax revs. I'd say worst case scenario they're good until 2019 and if they don't have significant revenue by then well that's a whole different fish to fry
To be fair they also upped their guidance to 45m to 55m a q (before any revs/milestones). Do they get any 2016 milestones for Humira FoB?
LOL yeah yeah yeah :P
I'm taking this and the fact since MYL hasn't even mentioned it since like July of last year. I'm much more concerned with Synthon's at this point
Am I the only who thinks this probably means MYL has given up on Gx copax?