News Details – Smallcapnetwork
Another Monster Win for SCN, BioMarin (BMRN). Yelp, Inc. (YELP) Offers Ripe Entry.
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February 2, 2024

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PDT

Good Monday to you. We've got quite a bit of exciting news to talk about today, so let's get right into it. We'll go from least important to most important. Then again, maybe some of you might disagree in the order here depending on how you acted on certain ideas we brought you over the last while. On Friday, we finished up our edition with some fun speculation outside of the market with horse racing and the NFL in light of the horrible week the Northeast had with Hurricane Sandy. It was our modest effort to put a smile on some faces of those who spent the week bailing out water, and probably dealing with a tremendous amount of damage repair. We truly hope things are getting better for those affected by last week's massive destruction by Mother Nature. If you took my Breeder's Cup selections, my apologies. I had a very modest profit with the Breeder's Cup weekend, but the two selections I gave you didn't pan out at all. Both Awesome Feather in the Lady's Classic, and Handsome Mike in the BC Classic didn't run well. That's horse racing. Looking back, I wish I would have given you a few other picks I had that did pan out. Oh well. Next time. Speaking of hot, and yes, I know this newsletter is and should stay focused on the markets and small caps specifically, we had another monster winning trade pan out since Friday. This morning, our most recent Featured Stocks, BioMarin (BMRN), gapped up over 20% on the open giving SmallCap Network Members and other BMRN investors a huge win to start the week. Just a week ago Friday, we published an edition titled, “Takeover Target Plays - FRX & BMRN”, suggesting a buy of both FRX at $34.18 and BMRN at $39.01 respectively, as not only excellent takeover targets, but also fundamentally attractive biotechs due to the recent overall weakness of the major indexes and biotech in general. Both stocks had recently traded lower on what we believed to be nothing but market sentiment and/or big money looking to shake out weak hands before something very good happened to either or both. Sure enough, this morning on the open, BioMarin set the tone by announcing their pivotal Phase 3 Study of GALNS for the treatment of MPS IVA met the primary endpoint of change in six-minute walk distance compared with placebo at 24 weeks in subjects receiving weekly infusions of GALNS at the dose of 2 mg/kg (p=0.0174). MOR-004 was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating two doses of GALNS (BMN-110, N- acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfatase) for the treatment of patients with the rare lysosomal storage disorder Mucopolysaccharidosis Type IVA (MPS IVA), also called Morquio A Syndrome. Patients dosed with GALNS at 2 mg/kg every other week did not show a meaningful or statistically significant change from baseline compared to placebo. The company also announced preliminary data from the MOR-005 extension study which suggests that clinical benefits continue to improve with further dosing with GALNS. Only a limited number of patients have reached the 36 or 48 week points of total time on treatment in the extension study, and the results will be updated when the study is completed. The company confirmed that based on the results of MOR-004, and following planned discussions with regulatory authorities, it expects to submit marketing applications starting in the first quarter of 2013. "The positive results from this pivotal study will help support GALNS as the first therapy available to help the approximate 3,000 people worldwide suffering from MPS IVA -- a rare, degenerative, life-threatening genetic condition with no available therapy" said Hank Fuchs, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at BioMarin. "The GALNS clinical program is currently the highest development priority at BioMarin, and this positive Phase 3 study serves as a potentially transformative milestone for the company," said Jean-Jacques Bienaime, CEO of BioMarin. "We are applying our track record of success in developing novel treatments for orphan diseases and our existing commercial infrastructure for Naglazyme to bring GALNS to patients as rapidly as we can." If you'd like to read the press release in its entirety, go here. The bottom line is this represents a huge win for BMRN investors, and a five day gain of 26% as I type for SmallCap Network Members, while still providing the continued possibility of the Company being an excellent takeover candidate. It's important to remember part of the context for the idea was due to BMRN's strong fundamental performance and pipeline of orphan drugs. Since the Company still remains a takeout target, and the hysteria regarding today's news should settle at some point, we're going to go ahead and close out the pick for now in hopes we can pick it up again cheaper once the stock settles a bit. I've been around this game a long time. If the stock is truly going to be acquired by the likes of a major league pharma, I suspect large shareholders will play games and find a way to bring the stock back down once again. Time will tell, but for now, let's revel in another monster winner for our readers and take the profits! I've said it enough times before, but I still haven't found a newsletter out there who has provided more profitable and legitimately more actionable ideas this year than we have. BMRN is just more living proof we truly do keep our eyes and ears peeled for not only ourselves, but our readers. Is Yelp, Inc. (YELP) Another Screaming Buy?