span style="font-size:100%;"Leerink Swann is out very positive on /spanspan style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ:HGSI) /spanspan style="font-size:100%;"raising their 12-month target on the name to $30 (prev $16).br //spandiv style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size:100%;"br //spanspan style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" Bottom Line:/spanspan style="font-size:100%;" Leerink's statistical power analysis confirms an ~85% likelihood of success for BLISS-76 data in November. They considered the major factors which could influence p-value via effect size and variability in the context of past results for Benlysta in BLISS-52 and Phase II. Reiterate Outperform, raising 12-month fair value to $30 from $16.br /br //spanspan style="font-size:100%;"span style="font-weight: bold;"As shown by the tables within, 67 of the 80 (84%) most likely combinations of response rates and standard deviation included in Leerink's sensitivity analysis would produce statistically significant (p0.05)./span span style="font-size:100%;"They believe BLISS-76 has been derisked after BLISS-52 results since the major difference between the two trials is geography, and the patient population in BLISS-76 (US ...

div style="text-align: justify;"Leerink Swann is upgrading span style="font-weight: bold;"Sun Healthcare (NASDAQ:SUNH)/span to Outperform from Market Perform with a valuation range of $13-$14.br /br /Firm believes the stock has been oversold on reimbursement concerns and the recent restatement at peer SKH. They believe that SUNH has significant organic margin expansion opportunities over the next couple of years and can continue to grow EPS even if Medicare rates are cut modestly.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Reimbursement and Reform Concerns./span The recent weakness in SUNH shares mainly reflects fear about potential Medicare rate cuts andbundling under healthcare reform. In early May, CMS proposed a FY10 Medicare payment cut of 1.2% for SNFs. Further, most of the healthcare reform proposals call for bundling some post acute-care payments with hospital payments, which reduces longer-term pricing visibility.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Visibility Should Slowly Improve. /spanFinal FY10 SNF (skilled nursing facility) Medicare rule is to be released by ...

Still keeping my eye on the Sequenom (SQNM) – but the whole idea with this name was to avoid the small cap “biotech” bipolar experience (either a huge win or a huge loss). Unfortunately, this is what this has now turned to, a coin flip. Probably the most bizarre disclosure I’ve ever been associated with, and I’ve seen many off the wall things in my years in the market.

Per CBSMarketwatch

Shares of beleaguered biotech Sequenom Inc. got a much-needed boost last week in the form of a somewhat favorable report issued by Lazard Capital Markets, but is the stock really that seaworthy?
Sequenom jumped nearly 15% on May 27, after Lazard analyst Sean Lavin upgraded the stock, now trading in the $3 range, to hold from sell, saying he believes it had more potential upside than downside.
While cautioning that the …

The rumors are back that Pfizer is negotiating to buy Wyeth, which would create a huge pharmaceutical company. br /br /blockquotePfizer, based in New York, has been negotiating with Madison, New Jersey-based Wyeth for months, one person said. A combination would create a drugmaker with annual sales of more than $70 billion, and best-selling medicines that include Pfizer’s cholesterol pill Lipitor, the world’s top-selling medicine with $12.7 billion in 2007 sales, and Wyeth’s Prevnar vaccine against pneumonia. /blockquotebr /br /Based on similar deals, the figures thrown around would put this deal around $60 billion. It is still speculation, and a few factors could push it higher. There are a few ways to look at this. To begin, I'm a Wyeth shareholder so I already am a believer in the quality of Wyeth. I think for Wyeth, a deal at $60 billion would ...