March 12, 2014
Three Favorites from a Biotech Expert
Biotechnology analyst Jay Silverman shares his outlook for the sector and the growing trend for large drug firms to acquire successful biotech firms. The editor of The Medical Technology Stock Letter also highlights a trio of current favorites in the sector., editor of .
Steve Halpern: Joining us today is Jay Silverman, biotechnology sector expert and co-editor of The Medical Technology Stock Letter. How are you doing today, Jay?
Jay Silverman: Very well, Steve, thank you.
Steve Halpern: We’ve had a strong year-to-date performance for the biotech sector, but many investors got scared-out by a sharp pullback at the end of February and going into early March. Should this volatility be expected and what do you see looking ahead?
Jay Silverman: Excellent, we’ve had a very healthy two step forward and one step back pattern in the Biotech stocks, so, while the end of February pullback was somewhat disappointing and somewhat sharp, in the scheme of things, it actually is following the same healthy pattern as we’ve seen in the last several months, so again, the fundamentals remain very strong. We’ve had, again, a ton of good news and we are just in the midst of a typical volatile biotech market.
Steve Halpern: Now, there were some important investor conferences occurring and, as you’ve noted in the past, these events can have a big impact on the sector, could you expand on that?
Jay Silverman: Well, there are a couple of major investor conferences during the course of the year. Of course, you are familiar with the JP Morgan conference in San Francisco in early January.
The next bigger investor conference is Cowen Conference up in Boston, which is finishing up as we speak, and Cowen also attracts every major big drug, and pharmaceutical, and biotech company, but also brings a lot of experts to the table, that’s their differentiating factor versus JP Morgan. So, again, it’s well attended up in Boston.