Feuerstein's Biotech Mailbag

Welcome back to the "biotech mailbag." The response to this column has been great, so please keep the feedback coming. If you have questions about biotech or want to take me to task for something I wrote, send me an email. Now, off to the mailbag:

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Reader J.H. emails to ask about Bioenvision(BIVN Quote) and its leukemia drug, Evoltra. "Why is this stock price so low? Am I missing something, or is this undiscovered?" he asks.

J.H., I rang up a fund manager friend about your question. He sighed in frustration because he owns the stock and wonders, like you do, why it seems to be stuck in a rut.

Bioenvision closed Friday at $4.73, which is about half of where it was one year ago.

My buddy feels that Bioenvision is a "show me" story right now. Specifically, investors are waiting to see how the company executes its plan to get Evoltra expanded into the treatment of elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). An approval application was just filed with European regulators, who should issue a decision by the end of the year.

Elderly AML in Europe could be a $100 million commercial opportunity for the company, my friend believes. It's why he stays with the stock, because at this price, it's undervalued.

There is a competitive wrinkle with the story, too, so be aware of that. Vion Pharmaceuticals(VION Quote), another biotech firm, is conducting a pivotal study of its leukemia drug, cloretazine, in elderly AML patients, too.