OAKVILLE, ON, Aug. 4 /CNW/ – Ontario residents with multiple myeloma, a rare form of blood cancer, have received new hope with the decision by the Ontario Public Drug Programs (OPDP) to pay for a new oral treatment for the disease, REVLIMID (lenalidomide), from Celgene Corporation.

This latest treatment advance has been shown to extend the overall survival of multiple myeloma patients and slow the progression of the disease for patients who have failed on other treatments.

REVLIMID will be reimbursed for use in combination with dexamethasone, for patients with multiple myeloma who are not candidates for autologous stem cell transplant and are either refractory to or have relapsed after the conclusion of initial or subsequent treatments and are suitable for further chemotherapy; or have completed at least one full treatment regimen as initial therapy and are experiencing intolerance to their current chemotherapy.

“REVLIMID is helping patients live much longer and have a better quality of life,” says Dr. Suzanne Trudel, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, Division of Medical Oncology/Hematology, at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. “The clinical data shows that patients treated with REVLIMID and dexamethasone have superior response rates and for a longer duration, experience slower progression of disease, and survive longer than we have ever seen before. The Ontario government’s decision to reimburse REVLIMID means that many more patients in this province can now access this important treatment.”

Multiple myeloma is a rare cancer, but recent statistics indicate an increasing incidence and younger onset of the disease.(1),(2) Of the estimated 6,000 Canadians living with multiple myeloma, approximately 1,350 will die and 2,100 new patients will be diagnosed in Canada this year.(2) Though there is currently no cure for multiple myeloma, recent treatment advances, such as REVLIMID, continue to improve the prognosis of the disease and are transforming multiple myeloma into a manageable chronic disease and improving patient quality of life.

“REVLIMID is a miracle drug. It has revolutionized the care for multiple myeloma patients,” says Carolyn Henry, diagnosed with the disease in 2000. “Before REVLIMID, there were few treatments for people with multiple myeloma – the diagnosis was devastating and our future was bleak. Today, our outlook is dramatically different as REVLIMID gives us a greater quality of life, more independence and more time with our families. In fact, the treatment allowed me to realize one of my dreams, to be at my daughter’s side when she graduated from university.”

This decision by the Ontario government underlines both Ontario and Celgene’s strong commitment to people living with multiple myeloma, their families and caregivers. Celgene will continue to work with other provincial governments to ensure that all patients with multiple myeloma across the country have access to this vital medicine.

“Provinces like Ontario and British Columbia, which have made REVLIMID available to patients since April, 2009, are showing leadership by funding this life-extending treatment,” says John Lemieux, President of Myeloma Canada. “Public access to treatments such as REVLIMID is absolutely critical to patient survival and to improving their quality of life. Ensuring that all people with multiple myeloma in Canada have access to the best treatments available is what will help move this cancer from the fatal and incurable column to the column of treatable and survivable cancers. We will continue urging all other provinces to follow the lead of Ontario and British Columbia.”

About Multiple Myeloma

Myeloma, also called multiple myeloma, is an incurable but treatable cancer characterized by excessive numbers of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow. Plasma cells are an important part of the immune system that produce antibodies to fight infection and disease. The disease may cause damage to bone structure, resulting in frequent fractures. It can cause severe fatigue, recurrent infections and bone pain. It may also prevent organs and nerves from working properly. It affects an estimated 750,000 people worldwide, and in industrialized countries it is being diagnosed in growing numbers and in increasingly younger people.

About REVLIMID

REVLIMID is an IMiDs(R) compound, a member of a proprietary group of novel immunomodulatory agents. REVLIMID and other IMiDs compounds continue to be evaluated in over 100 clinical trials in a broad range of hematological and oncological conditions.

About Celgene

Celgene Corporation is an integrated global biopharmaceutical company engaged primarily in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases through gene and protein regulation. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.celgene.com.

REVLIMID is a registered trademark of Celgene Corporation.

References:

———————————

(1) National Cancer Institute. A snapshot of Myeloma. Available at:

http://planning.cancer.gov/disease/Myeloma-Snapshot.pdf Accessed

February 17, 2009.

(2) Myeloma Canada: Cause and Incidence;

http://www.myelomacanada.ca/en/incidence_prevalence.htm?t=1

Accessed February 17, 2009.

via Ontarians with rare cancer offered new hope – Yahoo! Finance.

I would recommend the following three stocks to virtually any investor:

1. CELG (Celgene):  This stock might be the one with the highest opportunity to pop.  The Obama health plan is a bit of a drag for this sector, but once things shake out there, the stock is poised to perform well. In fact, we were strong on CELG below $39 on 4/15/2009.
2. GLW (Corning): Corning is solid, good financials, and in the position to profit from a growing economy.
3. MTB (M&T Bank): Some exposure to the financial segment is not a bad thing.  You could do this via an ETF (such as XLF) or via a solid stock like MTB.

These stocks have been touted on this site since we started BobandScott.com.  I have owned a core number of shares in CELG & GLW for at least 5 years and have traded a bit during that time.  I have owned MTB from the mid 20′s and have added to my position on a couple of occassions (in the mid 40′s).  MTB is a solid regional player that stands to benefit with the recovery in the economy.

Bob

First, pay attention when trading.

Second, stop fighting what you believe to be true

This isn’t the first time I have mentioned how important it is to have your head in the game when trading.  Not all trading software is dummy proof and you can make mistakes if you aren’t careful.  I was a bit fatigued today and decided to make a relatively small long term investment in a stock trading around $147 per share.  When trading, I get used to shares that are in a certain price range.  Determining the number of shares to buy or sell for a trade is generally in the hundreds or thousands of shares.  For example, a trade in MTB, GLW, or CELG would be in hudreds of shares.  A trade in shares of Citi (C) or AIB would be in thousands.

It isn’t often that I am trading something that is north of $100 per share.  Today was no exception.  I was INVESTING!  I decided to open a position in shares trading around $147.  I had a trade in my head as I was making this purchase and placed my order for 250 shares rather than 25 shares.  Due to my setup, I don’t get a total trading cost confirmation from my software until the trade goes off.  I had intended to purchase about $3600 worth of shares only to find I made a purchase of $36,000 worth of shares.  Oops!   Big oops.

I was in a position that has bitten me in the past.  Not one where I made a large trade by mistake, but one where I held onto something when I didn’t like the risk reward.  At the point the trade went off, I felt that there was possibly another $0.50 upside in the stock for the day.  I felt the downside probably carried about $2.00-3.00.  That kind of risk/reward didn’t suit me and I got rid of the excess shares within about 15 minutes of my trade.  Within about 2 hours, I was missing out on a gain of about $700.

The investment that I describe above was in shares of Goldman Sachs.

In earlier articles I mentioned how Goldman Sachs is at the center of it all.  Well, rather than continuing to fight (on whatever ground I was fighting) I decided to pick up some Goldman shares as a long term investment.  If I believe what I read, write, and discuss, Goldman will find a way to make money regardless of what the economy does or what the markets do.  They are a huge part of the market.  In some cases, they put themselves in the position to be the tail that wags the dog.

• Is there a bubble? Goldman will short it and cause the fall…
• Are things oversold?  Goldman will buy in with great entry points helped, in part, by their own research and trading action and participate in the upside movement.
• Is oil trading on supply and demand of the oil, or of the instrument that is used to trade the oil?  Doesn’t matter… Goldman will work it to their advantage.
• Compensation an issue with firms that took TARP money.  Easy one.  Pay it back and bring in the warrants at great prices.  Ahhhh.. it is good to have friends in high places.

Goldman Sachs

What will Goldman do with the riches that they will generate?  Well, for one, I now hope that their shares fly high.  However, I would imagine that their are some other classes of shares that participate in some rather sweet dividends.  I suppose that I could look that up, but I wouldn’t be allowed in the club anyway.  Goldman common is good enough for me.

They also discuss Celgene and the 4/15 call that Celgene is a bargain.

Scott discusses his love of TRF and the incredible gain that he has seen in the shares.

I am not listing this in my trading log since this is a long term purchase that is outside of my trading account.  By long term, I mean “until someone buys Celgene”.  I really do feel that the long term prospect of the company will be a buyout.  Maybe not soon, but eventually.  If they aren’t a candidate, they are still kicking off cash and poised for growth.

Let me point out, once again, the negative still stands as health care reform.  That is keeping some of the drug and biotech players down at these levels.  It is really a question of how much regulation downside is priced into this stock?

This trade of Celgene call options has a short story behind it.

I have discussed how good Schwab’s StreetSmart Pro software is.  Well, they dropped the ball on this option bracket order (note to self: don’t do bracket orders for options).    I bought my 4 contracts on Celgene and did the order as a bracket.  When placing a bracket order you are placing the buy and the sell order at the same time.  Schwab’s software is great in that it allows you to determine what you want your sell order to trigger on.  You can trigger based upon price, percent gain, etc.  I used percent gain on this order.  I placed my buy of 4 CELG July 40 calls @ $3.50.  The other side of the bracket was the sell order which I placed with the goal of an 8% profit above the $3.50.  Conservative trade, but a good percentage gain for a short term trade.

I received confirmation this morning that my call options sold @ $3.40 this morning.  The message was “condition met”.  It triggered because it saw my 8% gain condition as being met.  I had to call Schwab on this one to have it corrected.  Somehow, the order was triggered at a loss because the software/system reset the price that it was basing the 8% gain on.  When I called they stated that I had changed it to make it an 8% gain on the contracts at a price of $3.10.  They were saying that I changed the buy side of the bracket after it had executed. (not possible).

I asked the rep to look into this further because I did not believe that I changed anything.  In fact, during the first call he stated that I made the change but could not provide any sort of confirmation, time, date, etc.  When he returned my call, about 10 minutes later, he stated that the system reset the price in error and the contracts were back in my account.  Since the bid was up around $4.00, they didn’t just execute the 8% above $3.50 order (would have been around $3.75 for you lazy math folks).

I was please that this bank error worked out in my favor.  I sold 1 contract @ $3.90 and the remaining 3 @ $4.10.  I’ll update the total profit in my trading log.

I still think that CELG is a great long term play for the reasons outlined in my “Celgene is a Bargain” post.  This was purely a trade.  I am long CELG in both my retirement and primary account.

I just purchased call options on Celgene with a strike price of $40.00 a share.  I already own Celgene in a couple of accounts and am playing this as a short term trade.  We’ll see how it works out. You can check my trading log for the price.

I still believe that CELG is a great long term buy.