Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Recordati just posted their approved 2014 accounting report. In it, the first item discussed in their review of 2014's accomplishments is this:
In February an exclusive license agreement was entered into with Apricus Biosciences Inc., a
pharmaceutical company based in San Diego, U.S.A., for the marketing and sales of Vitaros®
(alprostadil), an innovative topical product for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, in certain W.
European countries including, among others, Spain, EU member countries in Central and Eastern
Europe, Russia, Ukraine and the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.), Turkey and certain
African countries. Vitaros® is approved for the treatment of erectile dysfunction by a number of
European health authorities and by Health Canada. Vitaros® is a topically-applied cream
formulation of alprostadil, a vasodilator, which directly increases blood flow to the penis, causing
an erection. Alprostadil is an alternative to the PDE-5 inhibitors for difficult to treat patients and
Vitaros® offers a patient-friendly form versus other alprostadil dosage forms.
First comes talk, then comes sales....
Here's a link to an article from MIMS - which is sort of like an online PDR for the United Kingdom. It's from last year, but I don't recall seeing it before. It mentions Vitaros- which is something we haven't seen for a long time in just about any physician-related media.
http://www.mims.co.uk/erectile-dysfunction/endocrine/article/882347
And so did you for recognizing it!! (And glad to have the company!)
Closed very strong, at the high of the day. Good volume. Maybe everyone is getting ready for the 10-K and the mother of all conference calls.
What ever Sarissa saw when it did its DD must have had a profound effect on Dr. Denner.
It's like the old Remington shaver commercial from many years ago - "I like the shaver so much, I bought the company!"
This year will be transformative. Finally!!
The company will release its 10-K in the next two and a half weeks. Private professional money just bought almost 10 million shares. Do you think, in their due diligence, they know something we don't? Does the sun come up in the east?
RIP Mr. Spock. You earned it.
Just noticed that MEIP is in the same building as APRI. I wonder if these guys talk to each other? The MEIP board and mgmt are all PhDs or MDs. I guess that never hurts! Maybe that's what pushed Pascoe to 'raise' the board and mgmt to a higher level.
That said, with Denner now in the catbird seat and a BoD with demonstrated abilities to get things done, I think our company has never been in a better position going forward.
looks like the day traders are washing out...
That's the way to do it!
I think we have a lot of holders in the 2.70-ish range (Jan '14 buyers and earlier) taking the opportunity to get out even. (Resistance at 2.70) They have to do what's comfortable for them. I'd hold. You've made the round trip and now the real movement is ahead of us.
When you bought back in Jan of '14, there were certain attributes of the company that got you interested enough to buy the stock. Today, those attributes are stronger than ever and growing stronger by the day.
If you saw something a year ago, what we see today is better in every respect. I wouldn't sell. If anything, this is the place to add to your position.
FYI- Jim Simon's RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES (possibly the best hedge fund the planet has ever seen) owns almost 54,000 shares.
true, but these are new people coming in for the longer time frame. I'm sure we lost some long-timers today- just wanting to put their money someplace else with less volatility while having the chance to get out even or maybe even make a few bucks, and that's ok, too.
We also had a lot of scalpers in today to catch 10 or 20 cents, which made the volume go nuts. In any case, it'll show up on everyone's scans tomorrow and that in itself will generate some positive interest. All in all, a very good day so far.
Well...... for SB's and Value's sake, I'll take a breath. Maybe I went overboard. but as someone who was in GALE (and got out with a profit before it went into the toilet), the whole idea of this kind of stuff feels less than completely honest.
About the report on APRI from Taglich Brothers:
All research issued by Taglich Brothers, Inc. is based on public information. All research issued by Taglich Brothers, Inc. is based on public information. In Decemberr 2014 the company (APRI) paid an initial monetary engagement fee of US$4,500 to Taglich Brothers, Inc. representing payment for the first three months of the creation and dissemination of research reports, after which the company will pay Taglich Brothers, Inc. a monetary fee of US$1,500 per month for another sixmonths of such services.
Dave Collins had promised me that "no 12 page glossy mailer" (usual junk mailing for pump and dump schemes) "would ever come from his company."
Looks like they got taglich to do it for them. I'm a bit disappointed in our mgnt and Catalyst for this kind of pathetic self-promotion.
If Denner found something in the company he likes, I doubt he found out about it from Taglich's report which is based on "publicly available informatiion."
To our management: Merck, Abbott, Biogen, Celgene, etc., etc., etc. never promote themselves this way. They let their drug discovery and sales do the talking. You can learn something from them. STOP DOING IT.
Dave Collins- why did you let this happen? Why would anyone think that Taglich's 'price target' has any meaning when our company (or you) are paying Taglich $22,500 for their 'opinion?'
I've held this company for many years- and this 'infomercial' is really the wrong way to go about raising interest for longterm investors.
I'd much rather have Irina's $3.00 target than Taglich's pie in the sky; at least Irina looked under the covers and not just "what's publicly available."
Any movement in the stock is entirely due to the recent SEC disclosures, which investors are always on the lookout for. For that reason, I have to ask Catalyst and APRI mgnt why they thought this action was needed?
I'm disappointed in our mgnt. If this is the greatest idea that Catalyst could come up with, it's time to cut them loose.
Apricus will rise or fall on the merits of its Vitaros sales, its pipeline, and its astute institutional investors.
If Denner didn't read the Taglich report (and somehow I feel he'd roll his eyes in his head if anyone suggested he did), then we don't need it either.
20 cents away from the 2014 high! I hope the short coverers decide to hold their shares. Might as well stay with the trend and make some money.
Very interesting.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1017491/000114420415011408/v402515_sc13d.htm
Here's the link to prove it. Looks like Sarissa is in the driver's seat and not just a passenger with deep pockets. I guess the stagecoach is about to leave the station. Everyone hold on. At least it explains the after-hours trades. I wonder if we'll have a nice gap open tomorrow?
Last one I see is 200 shares at $2.31 !!! (At 4:20:58)
A thousand share trade just went across at $2.24. (after the close)
As always, it comes down to the Monty Hall dilemma: Will you take the $4-5 I'm holding in my hand or will you take what's behind one of the three doors on the stage? And we fondly recall the times someone with a really good prize traded it away for a goat!!
Hey SB, exactly BECAUSE the pipeline has never looked better and because Vitaros is out in the marketplace. And yes, all the marketing partners make the deal a little cumbersome, but with V selling and P2 studies underway, we might just be enticing enough to get gobbled up.
Wouldn't be the first time that's happened. After all, if mid-P2-study results look promising, the companies 'just looking' will have to get off their duffs and get out on the dance floor before bigger fish come looking. (Which, in reality, is win-win for us, either way.)
Now if we can only get ENDO interested.... Heck, maybe they already ARE interested. I'm sure Morton has their phone number. At $4, ENDO could pick up APRI for small change and really grow the business. Their Stendra (gotten in the Auxilium buyout) wouldn't directly compete with Vitaros as they try to solve the ED issue via different routes.
Somebody needs to do a quick study to see if Vitaros in conjunction with the lower dose PDE5i pills has a positive effect. I'm sure there's a synergy here and it needs to be explored.
If someone was going to take an interest in APRI, it won't take too many quarters before the 'flight path' is projected with some certainty. and if you where interested in the company, why not buy it at $4 before it gets to $4 by itself- and then have to pay $6 or $7?
Just look at all the pharma companies being taken over. Santarus was taken over by Salix and Salix is just now being taken over. It could happen!
This is a snippet of the latest report from Vanda. You've seen their commercials on TV for a medicine that treats 24-hour syndrome for people who are blind.
HETLIOZ® (tasimelteon)
HETLIOZ® net product sales in the U.S. grew to $6.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, a 15% increase, compared to $5.2 million in the third quarter of 2014. HETLIOZ® net product sales were $12.8 million for the full year 2014.
Since the U.S. commercial launch of HETLIOZ® in April 2014, over 760 new patient prescriptions have been written including over 220 in the fourth quarter of 2014. As of December 31, 2014, over 470 patients had initiated HETLIOZ® treatment and over 330 patients were on active treatment reflecting a cumulative persistence rate of approximately 70%.
This isn't a recommendation to do anything with Vanda.
It is a hopeful desire that OUR company will follow the same format and simply state the facts about prescription counts, growth, and persistence so that the shareholders of the company know how sales are progressing.
got it. thx.
An hour in and almost 84K shares traded and price is holding. Nice.
where'd the last two day's posts go??
What we really need is for the new money, either directly or indirectly, influencing the board to make a deal with Actavis to get Vitaros available in the largest market in the world.
If Apricus needs to dangle a carrot of performing any new clinical trials, then just do it. Find out what the real issue is and work it out. I doubt its that Actavis has a its own Sildenafil pill- because having two methods of pharmacological intervention has to be better than one, right? Heck, if their Sildenafil tab doesn't work for you, try their Vitaros. How this doesn't make sense to the Actavis folks is beyond me.
Are they waiting for the room temp version? The Board must figure out what needs to be done- even if they need to buy it back at twice or 3 times the price. I hope Denner can get to the bottom of this and move this along. Who knows- maybe that was his line of thinking in taking a position in the first place....
And while he's at it, putting some attention to Mylan in Canada would be a good use of his skills.
North America has to be Pascoe's #1 task this year. Let's see how much progress he can make. If he can get product on sale in either of these markets this year, he'll have earned his pay in my book. Heck, I'd even approve throwing more options at him.
I have to believe that when guys like Dr. Denner put millions of dollars on the table, other hedge funds take notice. While his position in APRI is negligible to the overall size of funds under his management, I doubt he willingly throws money away. That's why I think the our future is bright.
Close at 1.92 (almost the high of the day) on 340K shares. Nice solid day.
Thanks, Value. BTW, I'm Dave-n(in)-CT. Anybody else up here in this snow pack? I'm really getting tired of it.... I shouldn't complain, Boston's gotten clobbered.
A little more about the guy at the top at Sarissa:
Dr. Alexander J. Denner, also known as Alex, Ph.D., serves as the Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner at Sarissa Capital Management LP. Dr. Denner has extensive experience overseeing the operations and research and development of biopharmaceutical companies and evaluating corporate governance matters. He also has extensive experience as an investor, particularly with respect to healthcare companies, and possesses broad life sciences industry knowledge. Dr. Denner served as the Managing Director at various Carl C. Icahn affiliated entities, including Icahn Partners LP. He served as Senior Managing Director at Icahn Capital LP., which he joined in 2006. He served as Senior Managing Director at Icahn Enterprises, L.P. He served as the Chief Executive Officer at ImClone Systems Corporation until August 27, 2007. He has a strong background in biotechnology and biotechnology investments. Dr. Denner served as a Portfolio Manager, healthcare investments at Viking Global Investors L.P. from April 2005 to May 2006. He served as a Portfolio Manager of Healthcare and Biotechnology Mutual Funds at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Dr. Denner joined Morgan Stanley in 1996. He served in a variety of positions at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and its predecessor companies including healthcare group head, healthcare sector leader, and biotechnology research analyst. Dr. Denner worked at the MITRE Corporation and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. He has been a Director of VIVUS Inc. since July 19, 2013 and Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. since February 21, 2014. He has been a Director of ImClone Systems Corporation since May 2006, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since June 2009 and Biogen Idec Inc., since June 2009. He serves as a Director at HyperMed, Inc. Dr. Denner served as the Non Executive Chairman of Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. at sigma-tau s.p.a from July 2009 to November 21, 2013. He served as a Director of Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. from May 2009 to November 21, 2013. Dr. Denner served as a Director of Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Mast Therapeutics, Inc) from October 26, 2006 to October 16, 2009. He performed research in Biomedical Engineering at Yale University where he was awarded a Ph.D. degree. Dr. Denner received an M.S. and M.Phil. degrees from Yale University, and B.S. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He didn't get where he's at by not being smart. He's obviously seen the books at APRI, spoken to everyone there, and, by his actions, has shown the direction he believes this investment will take. Looks like we're in great company.
And the market is taking notice. (and thanks SB!)
As regards the dilution- please take a random look at the micro biotechs- and you'll see companies with so many shares floating that they will never ever earn even a penny a share. What's it all mean? The fact that someone WANTS shares of the company is obvious good news. The pipeline is better than it's ever been. Sales, whatever they really are, are building up from all the anecdotal info I can find from the partner websites.
The company has brought in new experienced people and gotten rid of some long-timers of dubious ability. Yes, some of new folks know each other from prior work, but they do appear to have real credentials- and why would they willingly put the kibosh on their careers? They see something here- and with gratuitous option grants, they have a chance to make REAL money if they succeed.
I've held every share since I bought in years ago. I've sweated the plunges and missteps like most of us. To those who got out at $2 and got back in at $1, I applaud you. But the best is yet to come. The company has never been better prepared for going forward than it is today. That's Pascoe's job and he's pulling it off. I'll give him the time he needs. And if there are even twice as many shares outstanding by year end, who's going to complain if the stock is at $3.50 or $4.00? We all win.
I'm baaaaack. Actually never left. Computer issues and wasn't absolutely sure this place wasn't the source of my nightmare. But all resolved.
Nice to see that the stock found a bottom and that the CEO decided to buy a few shares. Also happy to see some of the longtimers in the executive office given their walking papers and new experienced people brought in.
I didn't sell a share on the way down and fully expect to easily do much better than break even in the coming year. Thank you, CEO Pascoe, for taking the bull by the horns and building a better company.
Just didn't feel the same without my daily 'fix' of you guys!
Don't get me wrong, any insider buying is good news. But let's be realistic. For someone making half a million+ dollars a year (Pascoe), $18K for some stock isn't going 'all in.'
I'm pretty sure most of the posters here, including myself, already hold more shares than any of these insiders.
The new BoD members and execs will be 'awarded' tens of thousands of options, and they'll find a way to do it to get the lowest strike price possible - like an average of the last 100 trading days' closes. I'd much rather see them award a million options to the execs, but make the strike at $4. Give them a real target to shoot for, something to make them work their butts off.
Interesting that they didn't buy when the stock was at $1.15, isn't it? I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they couldn't buy until the deal was announced....
Didn't Auxilium get bought out basically for their testosterone products? (Even though sales were decreasing..) If this new product can get through P3 with good results, who knows where the top end of APRI is...
DRTX got bought out for an 80% premium with one product. Hopefully our exec team and BoD (with all those PhDs) did their dd before they made this deal and there is a very good chance of this going all the way through.
I'm sure lots of weak shareholders unloaded at the top today simply because they had a chance to get out with a smaller loss. And that's fine. As they were selling, other were buying. It's a glass-half-full half-empty syndrome. I'm leaning to half-full.
Zman, any company can make a terrible move. Just look at Daimler buying Chrysler for 36 Billion and selling it a few years later for 7 billion! And I'm sure the German brains that proposed that deal were the best there were. I wish our team hadn't lost focus, but I truly think when people get into the CEO position, they believe they can't make mistakes. And if the board is a bunch of cronies looking to retain their jobs, of course they'll rubber stamp everything.
Pascoe's degree from The Point is in LEADERSHIP. I don't want him to pull an 'Obama' an 'lead from behind.' I really need him to come out and say "These are our planned expenses, these are our production partners, this is who our 'second facility' is, etc.
We are a public company and EVERY shareholder has the legal right to go into the office and ask to see the ledger. It may take a couple days to prepare, but it cannot be withheld.
Look, small biotechs are getting killed right now. We have a product that's being sold. How well, we don't really know. But I did see a review in England (after a long search) about some older gent who used it several times and was VERY happy about the results. It won't work for everyone who tries it, but it will work. This will just take time. I really don't think Pascoe wants to go down as the destroyer of two companies.
Wouldn't it be something if a board member or company employee actually bought shares today? Might be short covering (whoever rode it down from 2.30, congrats- you made a good play.) Might even be the market maker deciding that this was a good place to stock up on fire-sale shares for the future.
I am curious about one thing- APRI has about 23-24 employees. How in the hell does a company burn 14 mill on 24 employees? Say they ALL made 100K a year, that's 2.4 million, add 15% for benefits, that's another 360K. They outsource all the product stuff, so how much can that come to? The numbers don't make a lot of sense. If the Rayva is really worthwhile, let's expedite the P2/P3 trials. A simple non-ingested compound like this shouldn't require trials like some systemic anti-bacterial or cancer drug. I just don't see why 2017 is being floated about. There just doesn't seem to be any urgency with this company. (I know Californians are laid back, but this is ridiculous!)
You think Visium and Vanguard are still in? They don't make money by throwing it away. I would think one of them must have phoned Pascoe and asked 'what gives?' We need one of their mgmt. on the board, maybe two.
I'd really love to know what the new board members are doing to earn their pay- seems like nothing. Pascoe has to have a winner here- otherwise he's tainted material, a jinx to any company that would ever hire him (and I doubt any will.)
On the latest presentation, they show all the companies that the board members worked for- and that's the operative word "worked." I'm starting to think that APRI is the 'used car lot' for ex-pharma folks. They're all 'Peter Principled' out and stuck in this netherworld of a small ignored company that they won't even try to make work.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope West Point turns out true leaders and not just opportunists who seek to line their pockets at the expense of the shareholders they are pledged to support and protect.
FYI
I had sent a note to the company mentioning that the link to the upcoming investor conference showed APRI with the scheduled speaker being 'Dr. Shawn Carbonell, Founder & CEO.'
That sounded very strange. David Collins from Catalyst wrote back:
Right you are, David.
I was just with Rich and he's still the CEO and doing a fabulous job!
We'll get that addressed and get the Company name spelled correctly.
The APRI story is all good news - it's just the share price that's been a bummer and that as been partially the market the last few weeks!
Was with mgmt last two days and the story is strong and well received by new investors.
11:00 and over 130K shares. Is there any news out?
I'll second that.