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Is Biosensors a good buy?
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bengster68
Master |
25-Sep-2008 22:16
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Medtronic buying CryoCath for $380 million Thursday September 25, 9:06 am ET NEW YORK (AP) -- Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said Thursday it will buy Cryocath for about $380 million in a move to expand its treatment portfolio for heart conditions, including abnormal heart rhythms.
Minneapolis-based Medtronic said it will pay $8.75 Canadian per share, or $400 million Canadian ($380 million), to buy the remaining shares of Montreal-based Cryocath. The deal represents a 97 percent premium to CryoCath's closing price on Sept. 24, which was 4.44 Canadian dollars on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
CryoCath's key product is its Arctic Front system, which treats abnormal heart rhythms using cryoablation technology. The technique uses cold to restore a normal heart rhythm. "Medtronic's offer reflects its endorsement of our cryoablation technology and the role that our flagship product, Arctic Front, will play in treating atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart rhythm) patients around the world," said Jan Keltjens, president and chief executive of CryoCath. Medtronic estimates that up to 5 million patients worldwide are affected by abnormal heart rhythm. CryoCath's board of directors has already unanimously recommended shareholders approve the buyout and it is expected to close during the fourth quarter. ***Looks like MDT was already a shareholder of Cryocath and making a full takeover bid at almost 100% premium from last traded share price. If some MNC come in and become a strategic shareholder, BIG's share price will rocket up immediately and be more stable with a MNC anchor. |
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bengster68
Master |
25-Sep-2008 22:09
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Drug-Coated Heart Stents Save More Cardiac Victims, Study Finds By Alex Nussbaum Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Drug-coated stents cut death rates for heart attack victims by 16 percent over older, bare-metal versions, researchers said, offering fresh evidence for the safety of the next generation of the devices. Sales of drug-covered stents, the mesh metal tubes used to prop open clogged arteries, fell 30 percent last year amid concerns their coatings could cause fatal clots. The results suggest there's less to fear from the new stents in patients who've already had heart attacks, said Laura Mauri, the lead author of the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. About 1.1 million Americans suffer heart attacks each year and half die, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Of the 1 million stents implanted in U.S. patients annually, about half are used for heart attack victims. The new stents are coated with a drug intended to prevent scar tissue from reclogging arteries and patients who get them usually take anti-clotting medicine, which also might improve survival, Mauri said. ``It's been a real limitation that physicians haven't had a lot of data to guide their choice of stents,'' said Mauri, a Harvard Medical School cardiologist, in a telephone interview. ``Heart attack patients are the one setting where there's a clear benefit from stenting.'' The study, released today on the journal's Web site, tracked 7,217 heart attack victims in Massachusetts who were given stents in 2003 and 2004. Among those with the drug-coated versions, 10.7 percent died within two years, compared with 12.8 percent who used the bare-metal devices. Fewer Heart Attacks Patients with drug stents also suffered fewer repeat heart attacks and were a third less likely to need a second operation to reopen a clogged artery, according to the research, funded by the Massachusetts Department of Health. Other recent studies have found a regimen of drugs, diet and exercise work as well as bare-metal stents for patients in earlier stages of heart disease. Drug stents have shown a benefit for those who've already had an attack, Mauri said. The lower rate of repeat procedures probably contributes to the higher survival rate, as do the anti-clotting medications, she said. While not all patients may be able to tolerate those drugs, as many as 80 percent of heart attack victims could benefit from the drug-coated devices, she said. Stent makers, led by Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Boston Scientific Corp. of Natick, Massachusetts, sold $5.4 billion of drug-coated stents in 2005. Revenue fell to $4.15 billion last year amid the safety concerns, said Lawrence Biegelsen, a Wachovia Capital Markets analyst, in a May note to clients. Doctors have been returning to the devices this year, as new research downplayed the risks and Abbott Laboratories of Abbott Park, Illinois, and Medtronic Inc., of Minneapolis, began selling new models. |
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bengster68
Master |
25-Sep-2008 22:04
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There is a chance of that happening also. Buy a stake as a strategic investment or associate company and launch a takeover in future. But if JNJ does that, they are indirectly endorsing their rival's product (BIG in this case) and it doesn't solve their own problem: severe loss of market share quarter after quarter. There is also a chance the M&A buyer may first license the Biomatrix USA territory. When they are more confident, they can opt to launch a full takeover of their licensor Biosensors.
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TradeChancellor
Veteran |
25-Sep-2008 21:44
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Hi Bengster, is it possible for a slightly different scenerio other than a full M&A? For example, a potential client due to the current credit crisis, might not opt for a full M&A yet but rather buy a majority stake first, and see how it goes b4 a full takeover. | ||
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Fishcake
Member |
25-Sep-2008 21:39
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from marketwatch : Boston Scientific gets FDA approval for new stent system |
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exodus
Member |
25-Sep-2008 18:37
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anyone noes wat 2 expect of e conference later? e UBS one in NY. |
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bengster68
Master |
24-Sep-2008 23:42
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***Great Vulture: Still holding at .465. Good or bad ? ***Bengster: At this type of price i think all kind of negative things already priced in liao. Lau sai until see blood liao. Just hold on and wait patiently for someone to propose again. Hope BIG's key shareholders can spare a thought for minority shareholders like us and lower their M&A expectations due to the current state of global financial / credit crisis / horrible equity market / etc and don't miss the boat again. We were close to sealing a deal quite some time ago at a multi-bagger price compared to current share price. The problem is, if key shareholders keep comparing with what Conor (US$1.4B) and Xience (US$4.1B) got for their kind of technology and clinical trial results, the MNC buyer may not want to pay. If an offer came at US$1.5B cash (approx $1.70 fully diluted basis per share), key shareholders may think: Why are we worth only about the same price as Conor? Conor is a farce and we are the real thing. Conor lost in many has patent infringement litigations and their technology cannot work. We have proprietary technology, patents, CE Mark, 50% JWMS, backed by many solid sets of clinical data, etc. Even if an offer come in at US$2B cash (approx $2.25 per share), key managers will think: How can we be worth only half the value of Xience which is using our older generation Everolimus DES technology that we discarded to Guidant many years ago? We are the pioneer and leader in biodegradable polymer / totally polymerless DES and the DES industry is clearly heading towards this direction. How can we be worth only half Xience R&D program which uses durable polymer? Our results are backed by STEALTH 1, NOBORI 1 phase 1 & 2, LEADERS, etc. All our licensees using our proprietary technology shows stunningly good top class clinical data. Our DES technology is top class. Like that we minority shareholders jialat liao. |
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Fishcake
Member |
24-Sep-2008 20:01
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Bengster, i really wonder who you are? You sounds very much like an executive in BIG, knowing every details of the company, and being so passionate about BIG. | ||
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bengster68
Master |
24-Sep-2008 17:57
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Tomorrow's Straits Times "Mind & Body" got more articles about Biosensors: The Proven Best Stent Developer In The World. Biodegradable polymer (Biomatrix) and Totally Polymer-Free DES (Biomatrix-Freedom) is the way to go!!! I feel there is a possibly that M&A could happen around end 2008. The 2nd JWMS deal is issuing too much new shares and very dilutive to existing shareholders (140m + 40m + 20m option), a total of 180m potential new shares to WeiGao. I think BIG has a current total issued shares of around 1.05B shares. Perhaps BIG should use licensing deal with JWMS to extract out some royalty fee from EXCEL DES sales for technology transfer and using BIG's limus on biodegradable polymer patent. BIG should have the first cut of profits from EXCEL DES sales via royalty, then split the remaining profits at 50:50 with WeiGao. BIG can also appoint JWMS as sole distributor for future products like Biomatrix in China when approval is obtained in end 2008. 180m new shares to WeiGao is very dilutive to existing shareholders, esp with regards to any M&A windfall. |
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troy14
Member |
23-Sep-2008 16:55
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Recently my company van was involved in an accident with another van. Our driver took pictures with his mobile phone the extent of the damage which was a small dent on the side of the van. The other driver ask for $300 compensation but our driver declined as it was a company van. We reported the case to the insurance company. A week later, a lawyer letter came from the other driver and demanded $7000 compensation claiming all kinds of body injuries and loss of use, etc. We were told by our workshop that the lawyer specialized in such cases to make money. Eventually an independant valuer was appointed by our insurance company and the damaged valued at $3K which was definitely absurb for a small dent. We ended up losing our no claim bonus and higher premium. Sometime later we spotted the van, the dent was still there apparently no repair was done. This is daylight robbery. Insurance companies are willing to settle to avoid going to courts despite the evidence.
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bengster68
Master |
22-Sep-2008 19:30
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This type of people will reap bad karma. Now everyone just have to pay higher and higher premiums because of these crooks. Jialat. There are quite a few law firms infamously acting for nationality of the "injured" foreign workers. The workers will go to a particular specialist law firm that is famous for acting on behalf for their nationality. One of the law firm specialising in India foreign worker market has "agents" around Serangoon Road looking for "potential clients". I heard this particular law firm has about 5,000 cases per year and work on "50:50 profit sharing basis" with the foreign workers. That law firm even has several of their staff stationed at M.O.M on full time basis to facilitate the claims and documentations. Most of the time with the lawyer's "specialised skills" at claiming for a case backed by doctor's report, they will win the case. All the medical fees injured by seeing the specialist doctors are born by the employer so to the foreign workers, this is a zero cost investment to get a windfall. These guys are taking advantage of our compassionate side of the labour law. Assume an average claim of $5,000 per case, the lawyer gets $2,500 per case on average X 5,000 cases per year = $12.5m per year! Huat liao man!!! Woon Woon Chia Bee Hoon, no need to punt in stock market liao. |
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PensionAlterEgo
Member |
22-Sep-2008 18:18
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I have a similar story to share as well. Someone bumped into me not long ago. My car was stationary and maybe the person was travelling at about max 15kmh. So I didn't really fell anything. My car was repaired and I was expecting the assigned lawyer to contact me and settle the damages. To my surprise, he called me and tried to coax me into going to a doctor to fake some pain in the neck and back. He even tried to teach me what to say.. so that I would be prescribed physiotherapy. He then told me to go for physio (maybe just one session) and collect the bills so that he can help me do the claims. And he told me that he could help me claim about 4K for the medical claims... Easy money huh! certainly easier than punting in Biosensors.
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Coolsurfer
Member |
22-Sep-2008 17:53
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yeah..same thing happened to me. Not a scratch on both our vehicles with the taxi passenger saying looks all ok and it was a soft tab which he didn't really feel. The taxi driver didn't even want to exchange particulars even after saying his vehicle even if there isn't external injuries may have internal injuries! Next thing i knew afew months later i receive a letter from his lawyer claiming "neck injuries" which he got a letter from a clinic a whole 48 hours later. Maybe you should ask for his doctor's letter. Wonder if by law it is claimable after so long..could have met with another "accident". Next time i will video and take photos to be safe.
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bengster68
Master |
22-Sep-2008 17:14
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There are always unethical people around. Firstly, BIG is primarily not responsible for this. Secondly, nobody died or injured also. Recently i bumbed into a cab's backside. That cab driver made all sorts of claim including a few thousand dollars for "stable head injuries". I remember after we exchanged particulars, i asked if he is feeling ok. He said told me he is not injured and said im a very nice and easy person and then couple of weeks later he sent me a ridicous lawyer letter for a non-existent injury. Same for some of my foreign workers. Before they go back home at expiry of work contract, -they accidently "injure" themselves and suddenly they disappeared and next thing i receive some claim letter backed by doctors letter. There are unscrupulous lawyers hanging around Serangoon Road inciting foreign workers to do such claims and acting on behalf of them to claim money. Bangladesh / China workers also got such problems. These kind of problems are everywhere. |
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PensionAlterEgo
Member |
22-Sep-2008 14:33
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Four individuals only?! Each asking for 50K Euro compensation is not much actually. I also think the claims does not carry much weight.. given that the distributor of Occam and not Occam was actually at fault for the so called "Unethical conduct".
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PensionAlterEgo
Member |
22-Sep-2008 13:16
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A little puzzled???? Looking at the slides for Leaders results, slide 10 says that there are some patients that were excluded in the Angiographic follow ups. 45 and 47 patients for Biomatrix and Cypher were excluded in the 9 months follow up, respectively. But some graphs such as that in slide 20 says angiographic TLR done for 213 and 214 patients (the complete set). I think some error here..! I think the results for 9 months are not that complete. I expect TLR, TVR, thrombosis values, etc to be different when the complete set of 213 and 214 patients are in. |
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allright
Senior |
22-Sep-2008 13:07
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ANNOUNCEMENT BIOSENSORS INTERNATIONAL GROUP, LTD. (Incorporated in Bermuda) (Company Registration Number: EC 24983) Biosensors Comments on Recent Articles and Related Litigation Biosensors International Group, Ltd (the “Company”) announces that it has come to the Company’s attention that recent publications have again accused one of the Company’s subsidiaries, Occam International B.V. (“Occam”) of unethical conduct in connection with alleged clinical studies in India in 2004. The Company previously disclosed these allegations and an investigation was conducted by authorities in India and in the Netherlands. An attorney representing four individuals recently filed claims against Occam in the Netherlands related to this matter, requesting product refunds and monetary damages. Occam and the Company believe these claims are without merit and will defend themselves vigorously in this action. By Order of the Board Kevin R Sayer Company Secretary 22 September 2008 |
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bengster68
Master |
22-Sep-2008 12:40
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***Genq: We are all hoping that JNJ can buy over BIG. But does JNJ have the ready cash? If it needs financing, then will the current financial crisis severely impact the acquisition plan? ***Bengster: JNJ all along has been super cash rich. Every quarter make US$3B net profit. Anytime want to raise more billions of cash money also can. Their debt rating is superb. JNJ bought Conor for US$1.4B cash, Pfizer's consumer division for US$16B cash and was even thinking of buying over Guidant which would have cost them over tens of billions. Their business is generating very good stable cash flow. In 2006 and 2007, JNJ paid a total of around US$20B cash for both dividends and multi-billion share buy backs programs. Warren Buffet only touch cash generating machine type of companies. Its a freaking waste that JNJ has all the framework in the DES industry but don't have the technology to deal with newer entrants. On my previous calculations, JNJ is losing about 15% market share every quarter. I think they will do something about it. Medical device and drugs are the most lucrative business segment of JNJ. They form a small part of JNJ's revenue but the most major part of the profit. ***Red Bikini: From JnJ 2008 Second Quarter Report : total Sales 16.5 Billion Med Device n Diagnostic 6.1B About 37% of gross sales DES is about 900million - 14.8% of MDD or 5.5% of total sales. Simple arithematic projection will tell you DES ( Biosensors onlymajor product ) is NOT A major part of profit. JnJ could well stop selling DES and still be highly profitable. Why buy something that is still undergoing long term clinical trials ? Even more so when they are better alternatives on the horizon, some of which are already on clinical trials ( no drug no polymer alternatives but with better performance than BMS ). Business is not so straight forward. ***Bengster: Medical device and drugs are the most lucrative business portfolio of JNJ constituting a huge majority of their profits despite of small portion of overall sales. When you lose one of the most lucrative part of your business, your overall sales may drop a bit but your overall profit and overall profit margins drop by a lot. DES when produced at very large scale, it cost US$200 to manufacture with an average selling of US$2,000 per stent to hospitals. Thats a 10 times selling price against your cost of manufacture. JNJ was formerly the undisputed global DES leader. All the JNJ's DES business framework and mechanism are already in place. To stop selling DES is to fall from number one position to zero in DES industry. JNJ still can make it to the top, all depends if they want to do another M&A. JNJ did the Conor M&A last year because they want to remain in this industry but it was done with very poor foresight. To stop further loss of market share JNJ start doing TV advertisements this year but its not helping them either. JNJ need to do something with more impact like buying a new Bazooka weapon to deal with the newer market entrants like Endeavor and Xience. If you are JNJ's CEO, will you get out of the DES industry while DES sales is growing very rapidly now? If JNJ raise their white flag now, i think they are making a further bigger mistake. I have already provided market data that DES sales has climbed 16% this year (Y-T-D)and heading higher. Why let go of an industry clearly on uptrend? Instead, they should seek for a new proven DES technology that has very good DES efficacy and can address to late-thrombosis issue and capture back their market share. If JNJ remove their DES business, profit will be affected, multiply by the normal PE of around 18 to 20 for such MNCs, the impact to their market cap is significant. There will be a lost of confidence in JNJ's management ability because they just fall from number one to zero so quickly, all because of bad M&A mistake and they don't know how to reverse their falling fortunes with another smart move. Vice versa, if JNJ can become the DES market leader again, market cap further increases. The impact of PE to the market cap can be really quite substantial. There are some Wall Street analysts has been saying the best way for JNJ to turn around in DES industry is to make buy another stent developer. BSX was a one product company and they were the number 2 DES player. At their peak market capital, BSX was worth US$50B. BSX don't even have proprietary their technology and borrow/licensed them from others. I don't find the clinical data of BSX's Taxus DES good anyway. Of course BSX did a costly Guidant M&A mistake, late0thrombosis issue, falling DES market share resulted in dramatic fall in their market capital. From July to now since Xience's USA launch, Abbott's share price has been resilient and increased by over 10% despite the stock market selldown, outperfoming index by around 20%. Investors know Abbott will be the next global DES leader next year. Why buy something still under clinical trials? Clinical trials are on-going and most DES trials last thru 5 years. However there are several key milestones throughout this 5 year duration and at 9 to 12 months we can have a pretty good gauge of how well the device is performing. JNJ bought Conor even before Conor had the 9 months data and that is why JNJ bombed in the Conor M&A. Abbott bought Xience with only SPIRIT II 9 months data of about 500 patients (not massive scale). BIG already has STEALTH 1 (4 years data), NOBORI 1 phase 1 (3 years data), NOBORI 1 phase 2 (2 years data), massive scale LEADERS (9 months data, 12 months should be ready later this month). Biomatrix is no longer at early clinical trial stage. Biomatrix is already proven and already obtained CE Mark which means the product has been commercialised already. There are many companies claiming to have the best and latest cure to something but until they can come out with a solid set of clinical data then come and talk. MITV made many claims but they have been evasive about their clinical data. So many other companies made wild claims before, only to flop eventually. |
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mazimaz10
Senior |
22-Sep-2008 12:19
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Anyone can advise what the good entry price to buy for biosensors at this market condition? | ||
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bsiong
Supreme |
22-Sep-2008 09:33
Yells: "The Greatest Wealth is Health" |
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biosensors is still not a good buy at least for now... strong resistance and weak support... though volume is reasonably hi recently... | ||
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