Biotech Mailbag: NeurogesX Patchy at Best

That said, with the stock trading near cash, it's not a bad speculative investment.

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Regarding my story on the re-pricing of executive stock options at United Therapeutics(UTHR), Simon E. had this to say:

"Another interesting aspect to this story is the substantial program of option sales in the 5-6 month run up to the announcement. This seemed to coincide with some very bullish language being used in presentations to the investment community.

"The senior management team made tens of millions of dollars in profit in that period. Martine Rothblatt [United Therapeutics' CEO] being the biggest winner followed by [President] Roger Jeffs.

"It would seem that having made money prior to the crash, they are trying to profit in the downturn. Interestingly, I haven't noticed any of them buying up stock recently, so is the crash in price really a buying opportunity? What does this set of behaviors suggest for the level of confidence of the senior management team in the long-term prospects of the business?"

Simon makes an excellent point, one that could be a reason investors aren't rushing to snatch up United Therapeutics shares at this point. Perhaps the time to buy will come when company management starts buying stock instead of selling it.

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Onward, David J. asks, "Is it time for a second look at Delcath Systems(DCTH)?"

David reminds me that it's been a bit more than a year since I wrote about Delcath and its Percutaneous Hepatic Perfusion (PHP) system that delivers tumor-killing drugs directly to cancers in the liver while at the same limiting exposure of healthy organs and tissue to the toxic drugs.

It's a neat technology, but at the time of my last posting, I basically said it was too early to consider an investment in Delcath. The company was still trying to drum up interest from cancer hospitals to participate in a phase III study, and there really wasn't a ton of clinical data to prove that PHP was going to work.

Since then, Delcath has been able to get more cancer centers to sign up for the phase III study. Enrollment is about halfway there, with completion expected next year. That's good news.

I may disappoint David, but I'm still not ready to recommend Delcath. The stock has fallen from $2 a share to $1 a share in the past year, and I see no compelling reason to jump in right now. It's still too early, and to be honest, I don't yet understand the compelling commercial case for the PHP technology. Can anyone out there explain it to me? Why will oncologists care about this technology in big enough numbers to make a dent in the cancer treatment market?