Stockpickr: Check Out These Two Biotechs

I'm mystified by biotech.

On the one hand, everything seems to point to the names in this space as becoming the next big "boom stocks." With baby boomers aging, more money than ever being invested in medical research and America still by far the unquestioned leader in biotech research, there is no doubt that many of today's small-cap biotech stocks will be the mega-cap pharma stocks of the future.

But how to find them?

On Stockpickr, several do-it-yourself portfolios offer phenomenal analyses that at least point toward some interesting stocks. There are two portfolios in particular that I follow religiously, which I bookmark so that every time they are updated I get an email informing me to check them out:

• The BioHealth Investor
• Bumblebee Biotech

Both portfolios provide detailed analyses for each of their stock picks, laying out the reasons why these companies will be the winners in the biotech races.

For instance, The BioHealth Investor lists Pain Therapeutics(PTIE Quote) as a stock to watch. Here's what he says about it:

These days it seems doctors have more to worry about than practicing medicine. One big issue, other than lawsuits, of course, is the increasing number of drug abusers jumping from one doctor to the next seeking the wonderful effects of oxycodone, one of the best painkillers around.

The euphoric highs experienced when taking oxycodone can be addictive to a certain number of susceptible patients. But doctors have little choice [in prescribing it], as some of the most popular pain killing formulations on the market include oxycodone or some variant of it.

This is where Pain Therapeutics hopes to hit it big. The company's lead drug candidate is Remoxy, which includes a reformulation of the active ingredient in oxycodone that has been shown to have substantially lower addictive effects.