Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Nexavar

Nexavar is a drug taken orally that targets both the tumor cell and the tumor vasculature. Nexavar targets members of two classes of kinases known to be involved in both cell proliferation and angiogenesis, the processes that enable cancer growth. These kinases include RAF kinase, VEGFR-1, 2, and 3, PDGFR-beta, KIT, and FLT-3.

Several of those genes are ones that I find pop up when I run microarrays on my tumor samples so the action of this drug interests me. However my work is on breast cancer and Nexavar is used to combat advanced kidney cancer. But that's all beside the point--the reason for this post is that I bought a thousand shares of Onyx today.

As you can see in the chart to the left, there was a huge drop in price between last Friday and today.

You see, Onyx had some bad news last week. After the close of the stock market in NY it was revealed that the Phase 3 clinical trial of Nexavar in patients with advanced melanoma did not meet its primary endpoint. As a result the price of shares in Onyx fell sharply when the stock market opened today. I bought in at 10:30am when the price had stabilized a little. I paid $12.38 a share. Only time will tell if that's a good price or not.

Here in this chart you can see that Onyx isn't very stable to begin with. It's a biotechnology company and they all have lots of up and downs--and more than a few bankruptcies. It makes for a very playful experience when owning a stock. LOL

Just note the volume of shares traded. The typical day is a half million shares whereas days like today (almost 10 million shares by noon) that volume is met in the first half hour the market is open. It's all very exciting.

As for my "investment" objectives? I hope to sell in a few months at $16. I like the action of the biotech stocks but I'd not leave money in them for long term goals. They're just too unstable!

UPDATE: I ended up buying another 500 shares at $12.32 so my average cost is $12.36 for 1,500 shares. The stock closed the day at $12.18 so I'm down $270 already. I'd best get a tin cup so I can start begging on street corners. I've heard that actually brings in good money...

Comments

tiff said…
So, with that news, why did you decide to buy their stock? What's the pipeline like?
utenzi said…
You're so analytical, Tiff! I'm just a contrarian and figure if everyone is selling, it must be time to buy. LOL
kenju said…
I hope that your investment nets you a good profit down the line, Dave.
Noi Rocker said…
Wow you are very well informed! I understand more when you write in English:p
Anonymous said…
I hope you make a profit from this. You are more daring than I.
utenzi said…
So far, as of 11am on Tuesday, I'm down $540 but am hoping it'll turn around. *sigh* It's a lot more fun when you're making money even if it's only paper profits.

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