Biotech Values

[ThomasS]

Insider Watch: Dendreon (4.27 +0.09)

Yesterday three DNDN insiders, the Chief Scientific Officer, a Director, and an SVP, bought a total of 15K shares at $3.99-4.04 (roughly $60.4K worth). The stock has been in a two-year down-trend and made multi-year lows at $3.68 on May 19. Dendreon is a biotechnology co involved in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics that harness the immune system to fight cancer. DNDN's lead product candidate, sipuleucel-T (Provenge), an investigational active cellular immunotherapy for the treatment of prostate cancer, is in late-stage Phase 3 clinical development to evaluate its safety and potential effectiveness in advanced prostate cancer. The co intends to complete the Biologics License Application to the FDA for Provenge in 2006. DNDN has collaborative agreements with Genentech (DNA) (for trp-p8) and Abgenix (against matriptase). The co is also evaluating partnership opportunities for the commercialization in Asia of products that may result from its Trp-p8 program and for development/commercialization of its Protease Activated Cancer Therapy pro-drug platform... On 5/9 the co reported Q1 results, with EPS of -$0.34 vs -$0.33 last year. Since reporting Q1 results the co has announced preclinical data highlighting potential new active immunotherapy for treatment of renal cell cancer, as well as research showing "promising" activity of Provenge in combination with Avastin. While yesterday's insider buys are not overwhelmingly large, DNDN is a stock to watch for more insider activity and the potential for progress on Provenge and the rest of its pipeline.