Astrazeneca/Alexion merger could drive more deals: Piper Sandler

 

• Commenting on the proposed merger between Alexion (NASDAQ:ALXN) and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN), Piper Sandler highlights the ‘durability’ of large biotech businesses, ‘with Astra pointing to double-digit EPS accretion in years 1-3’ from the deal.
• “If the market doesn’t recognize it – each and every time – someone else does”, the analysts led by Christopher J Raymond notes, as they single out BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:BMRN), Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:RARE), Acceleron Pharma (NASDAQ:XLRN), and Deciphera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:DCPH) as compelling within a large entity.
• Notably, all companies serve the niche segment of rare therapeutics, and some might make more sense, as suggested by their valuations.
• Ultragenyx and Acceleron, two commercial-stage, rare-disease specialists, have already gained +236.6% and +144.3%, respectively, in the year so far. Comparatively, BioMarin and Deciphera look to be outliers losing -4.8% and -13.6%, respectively.
• BioMarin is worthy of particular attention. A cursory look at 2014 – 2019 financials indicates the company had more than a twofold rise in revenue with EBITDA turning positive to $0.5M compared to negative ~$98.8M five years ago. With a net cash position, the total cash and equivalents stand at $1.5B, nearly double the level in December 2019. Yet, shares in terms of EV to forward sales trade at ~7.8x compared to the five-year average of ~9.4x.
• BioMarin and Deciphera have each gained nearly +5% during the day, while Ultragenyx and Acceleron have risen +6.5% and +4.8%, respectively.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3644124-astrazeneca-alexion-merger-drive-deals-piper-sandler

Biotech, pharma investments on VC radar in 2021 - PitchBook

 The two main areas for venture capitalist (VC) investment - technology and healthcare - have grown during the COVID-19 pandemic and investors have ample dry powder to direct money at biotech and pharma firms in 2021, research firm PitchBook said on Monday.

There is mixed news heading into 2021 on the COVID-19 pandemic front, with rising infection levels and a handful of vaccines showing promise.

Added to this, a new administration in the United States and its policy proposals, taxes, immigration, trade policy, and other issues that directly affect both VC investors and companies will all be on the table next year, PitchBook said in its 2021 U.S. venture capital outlook report.

VC investment in the biopharma space is likely to surpass $20 billion in 2021, driven by the need to fund trials and build out research and development programs, as clinical trials resume and elective procedures restart.

On the other hand, the number of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which raise funds through an initial public offering (IPO) to acquire another company within two years, is expected to dwindle in 2021 compared to 2020, PitchBook said.

A total of 162 SPACs listed so far this year have raised $55 billion, an increase of 501.8% on capital raised and 295.1% in count from 2019.

“Just eight months into this new SPAC phenomenon, we’ve already seen signs of oversaturation in the market, with a recent uptick in the number of downsized SPAC IPOs,” PitchBook analysts said.

Over the next 12 months, the analysts expect to see more signs of overcrowding in the SPAC market, including a year on year decline in SPAC IPO volume.

PitchBook said more companies, especially large-sized technology startups, are expected to take the direct listing route to go public instead of an IPO in 2021.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-venture-capital/biotech-pharma-investments-on-vc-radar-in-2021-pitchbook-idUSL4N2IU2VN

NYC Mayor Warns 'Prepare For Possibility Of Full Shutdown'

Stocks are leaking lower Monday morning, erasing some of this morning's vaccine-induced (and possibly dollar- and Brexit-induced) bump,after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio brought up the possibility of a "full shutdown" of NYC on Monday, the day that restaurants in the city were forced to close as new bans on indoor dining went into effect.

As restaurant workers across the city took to social media to offer closing restaurants (many of which will probably never reopen) one last toast, the mayor warned that there could be even more economic pain ahead, as COVID numbers and hospitalizations climb across the city and across the state, even as its health-care workers will be among the first in the country to get the vaccine).

"There’s the potential of having to do a full pause, a full shutdown, in the coming weeks, because we can’t let this kind of momentum go," de Blasio said on CNN when asked Monday morning about comments made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week, when the governor warned about a bigger shutdown.

"We’re seeing the kind of level of infection with the coronavirus we haven’t seen since May and we have got to stop that momentum — or else, our hospital system will be threatened," de Blasio added, before warning that the virus must be stopped at whatever the cost due to the threat of "too much damage".

"This kind of momentum that the disease has right now? We’ve got to stop it. We’ve got to stop it before it causes too much damage, too much pain...and we have to stop it to give time for the vaccine to really be properly distributed."

Presumably, not economic damage, though.

Stocks are moving lower...

...and gold is ripping.

Conversely, NYC will push ahead with plans to return schools to in-person learning, with the city already moving to five days a week for as many schools as possible. With schools staying open, de Blasio explained "full shutdown"

Earlier, the mayor traveled to a city hospital to watch a New York City nurse become one of the first health-care workers to receive the vaccine as part of the nationwide rollout.

https://cms.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-slide-nyc-mayor-warns-prepare-possibility-full-shutdown

Family doctors begin COVID-19 immunization drive in UK

 The roll-out of the biggest vaccination programme in the history of the UK’s NHS is gathering pace, as family doctors and their teams begin taking delivery of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 shot.

In a statement the NHS said that GP practices in more than 100 parts of the country are taking delivery of the vaccine today.

Some clinics will begin immunisations this afternoon and the majority will start tomorrow (Tuesday), the NHS said.

The vaccine, which was approved in the UK earlier this month and granted an Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA late last week, will be administered by teams of nurses, paramedics and pharmacists.

Those aged over 80, as well as care home workers and residents, will get the vaccine first as they are considered to be in the group at highest risk of getting the disease.

Care home residents will start to receive the vaccine later this week as distributors finalise the processes to deliver the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which must be stored at around -70c to maintain its integrity.

Practice teams are redesigning sites to put in processes to meet these logistical challenges and the NHS will contact people in the priority groups when it is their turn to receive the vaccine.

Dr Simon Hodes, a GP from Watford told the BBC that his surgery is due to begin vaccinations on Monday, adding that very few of his patients had worries about the shot.

Hodes said his surgery had introduced a “military-style operation” to ensure vaccine doses are not wasted.

Dr Nikki Kanani, a practising GP and NHS director of primary care, said: “GPs, nurses, pharmacists and other primary care staff are eager to play their part in protecting people against coronavirus.

“This is the greatest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the NHS and, to help vaccinate people safely we will be working with local communities to deliver it in convenient and familiar settings.

“As a GP I am proud to be part of this huge national effort to protect our patients against the virus and I would urge the public to come forward when they are called up for the vaccine.”

https://pharmaphorum.com/news/family-doctors-begin-covid-19-immunisation-drive-in-uk/

Intellia gene editing technology shows promise in pre-clinical study

 

• Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NTLA) announces that its targeted liver gene insertion technology has achieved the physiological protein levels of human alpha-1 antitrypsin in non-human primates (NHPs) following a single administration.
• Compared to traditional adeno-associated virus gene therapy, the therapeutic levels of protein expression thus achieved after a single course of treatment will be stable and durable, the company noted.
• “Our new data reinforce the promise for Intellia to potentially cure a variety of rare genetic diseases requiring the restoration of a functional protein in the liver with a single-course therapy,” said Intellia President and Chief Executive Officer John Leonard, M.D., adding that the company has now demonstrated “platform’s modularity and translatability to multiple targets of interest by inserting genes to durably produce unprecedented levels of protein in NHPs for hemophilia B and AAT deficiency.”
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3644051-intellia-therapeutics-gene-editing-technology-shows-promise-in-pre-clinical-study

Vaccine relief sweeps over the travel sector

 

• Pictures of the first shipments of COVID-19 vaccines leaving Pfizer's facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan are enough to bring some holiday cheer to the travel and leisure sector today. Pfizer did not take money from Operation Warpspeed, but is working with FedEx, UPS and the government on coordinating early distribution.
• In the cruise line sector, Carnival (NYSE:CCL) is 5.07% higher premarket, Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) is up 3.07% and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE:NCLH) is showing a 3.02% gain.
• Other stocks moving in the premarket session includes Delta Airlines (NYSE:DAL) +1.99%, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) +3.52%, United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) +2.44%, Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) +1.46%, Marriott International (NASDAQ:MAR) +1.55%, Six Flags Entertainment (NYSE:SIX) +1.76%, SeaWorld Entertainment (NYSE:SEAS) +2.05%, MGM Resorts (NYSE:MGM) +1.49% and Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H) +1.11%.
• Of course, the key question remains on when travel will return to 2019 levels. Most analysts expect to see that milestone in the very late part of 2021 or 2022.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3644009-vaccine-relief-sweeps-over-travel-sector

Singapore approves Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in Asia first

  Singapore became on Monday the first Asian country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine and said it expects to start receiving shots by the end of the year.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, said he would be among the early recipients in the city-state of 5.7 million people, which has one of the lowest fatality rates globally from the coronavirus. The government said it expects to have secured enough vaccines for everyone by the third quarter of next year.

“My colleagues and I, including the older ones, will be getting ourselves vaccinated early. This is to show you, especially seniors like me, that we believe the vaccines are safe,” Lee said in a national broadcast, adding that the vaccines would be free, voluntary and given first to healthcare workers and the elderly.

Singapore has also signed advanced purchase agreements and made early down-payments on promising vaccine candidates including those being developed by Moderna and Sinovac, setting aside more than S$1 billion for shots, authorities said.

The city-state’s top health official, Kenneth Mak, told a news conference that Singapore had secured enough vaccines for all residents. Mak declined to give specifics on the deals struck with the vaccine makers.

Singapore’s announcement came after the United States launched its vaccine programme, with cargo planes and trucks carrying coronavirus vaccine shipments fanning out from FedEx and UPS hubs in Tennessee and Kentucky on Sunday en route to U.S. distribution points, in an immunization project of unprecedented scope and complexity.

The United States, Canada and a handful of other countries have approved the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE vaccine, with a mass inoculation programme also underway in Britain.

China and Russia are also deploying locally developed vaccines.

Lee said Singapore would lift some anti-virus curbs from Dec. 28, including allowing groups of eight to congregate in public, up from a limit of five and increase capacity limits for large gatherings.

Singapore has spent billions trying to shield its economy from its worst-ever downturn and is trying to reopen international travel as it prepares to host the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering of political and business leaders next year.

The country has reported only a handful of local cases of COVID-19 over the last two months.

Only 29 people have died from the disease in Singapore. Most of more than 58,000 coronavirus cases in the city-state occurred in cramped migrant worker dormitories.

Worldwide, more than 70 million people have been infected with the virus, with 1.61 million deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-singapore-lee/singapore-approves-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine-in-asia-first-idUSKBN28O0YE