10 Biotech Stock Predictions for 2012

2. At least one leading U.S. academic medical center will bar its doctors from consulting with Wall Street investors. Soon after, one or more health care-focused expert networks will shutter operations.

Incorrect. Cozy consulting agreements between doctors and Wall Street investors came under a lot of scrutiny this year but the business practice continues.

3. Dendreon (DNDN) will experience a temporary disruption in Provenge sales due to a problem at one of its manufacturing plants.

Half-correct. Disruption? Hell yes! Little did I realize that it wouldn't be a manufacturing snafu that messed up Dendreon this year, but a stunning inability to sell enough Provenge.

4. By the end of the year, one or more of these companies will be gobbled up in an M&A deal: Amarin (AMRN), Seattle Genetics, Human Genome Sciences (HGSI), Pharmasset, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Biomarin Pharmaceuticals.

One-sixth correct. Pharmasset saved me from total failure.

5. Arena Pharmaceuticals will end 2011 still trying to convince FDA to approve its weight-loss drug lorcaserin.

Correct.

6. One of the large-cap biotech companies will begin paying a dividend.

Correct. Amgen is now paying a dividend.

7. Sequenom's (SQNM) attempt to commercially launch a fetal DNA test for Down's syndrome will be stopped by FDA, which decides to enact stronger regulatory control over all genetic tests.

Incorrect. The FDA crackdown on genetic testing hasn't materialized.

8. Legislation will be introduced to allow Medicare and/or FDA to consider drug pricing in regulatory approval and reimbursement decisions.

Incorrect.

9. European regulators approve InterMune's (ITMN) pirfenidone for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Correct. Pirfenidone was approved in by European regulators last December, even earlier than I predicted.

10. After a series of Wikileaks rocks the agency, the FDA decides to make complete response letters (i.e., drug-rejection letters) public.

Incorrect. Wishful thinking on my part.

11. An outraged and unhinged investor physically threatens an expert sitting on an FDA advisory panel, prompting the agency to radically change procedures for future advisory panels. The FDA adds security and does away with definitive "Yes/No" votes for or against drug approvals.

Incorrect.

12. Discovery Labs (DSCO) finally -- finally! -- receives FDA approval for Surfaxin.

Incorrect. But then, betting on Discovery Labs doing anything on right or on time is foolish.

13. Cel-Sci (CVM) ends 2011 still searching in vain for the first head-and-neck cancer patient to enroll in the Multikine phase III trial.

Incorrect, but only by a hair. Cel-Sci spent most of the year stumbling and bumbling to get this doomed study off the ground.

14. A Chinese pharmaceutical company makes an unsolicited bid for a large U.S. biotech firm. Or, a large U.S. biotech firm acquires a Chinese pharmaceutical company.

Incorrect. The Chinese reverse merger scandals made these sorts of deals untenable.

15. A senior Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) executive resigns after a drugstore surveillance camera captures him trying to self-initiate another unofficial recall of children's Tylenol from store shelves.

Incorrect. As far as we know, since no one was caught.

--Written by Adam Feuerstein in Boston.



>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Adam Feuerstein.

>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/adamfeuerstein.

>To submit a news tip, send an email to: [e-mail].

Follow TheStreet on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Adam Feuerstein writes regularly for TheStreet. In keeping with company editorial policy, he doesn't own or short individual stocks, although he owns stock in TheStreet. He also doesn't invest in hedge funds or other private investment partnerships. Feuerstein appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2