Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Invest In 2015

Celgene (CELG) was on the receiving end of an upgrade today, but the upside has been limited as the biotech sector continues to sell off.

Shares of Celgene gained 0.6% to $142.06 today, even as Amgen (AMGN) dropped 2% to 111.41, Biogen (BIIB) fell 3.1% to $285.81 and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) declined 3.9% to $124.37, extending its losing streak to three days. Gilead Sciences (GILD) dipped 0.2% to $73.90, ending a nine-day winning streak

In a report titled “It’s Time…We Think,” Piper Jaffray’s Joshua Schimmer and team explain why they raised their rating on Celgene:

The biotech sector has cooled off significantly over the past couple of months. Even a crushing EPS beat by [Gilead] barely moved that stock. Growth in general has come under pressure, and we are cognizant that high-multiple stocks may struggle to perform. While [Celgene] can’t yet be considered a “value” stock trading at a 2014 P/E multiple of 20x, it’s 20%+ sustainable EPS CAGR means it will eventually either become a value stock or see multiple stabilization with share performance driven by organic EPS growth…

5 Best Heal Care Stocks For 2016: Sanofi(SNY)

sanofi-aventis engages in the discovery, development, and distribution of therapeutic solutions to improve the lives of everyone. The company offers a range of healthcare assets, including a broad-based product portfolio in prescription drugs, OTC/OTX, generics, vaccines, and animal health. It has a strategic alliance with Regulus Therapeutics Inc. to discover, develop, and commercialize micro-RNA therapeutics, initially in fibrosis. The company was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Williamson]

  In this video, health-care analyst David Williamson walks investors through Sanofi's� (NYSE: SNY  ) rough quarter, and explains why investors need to keep an eye on the bigger picture. Sanofi is dealing with the loss of patent protection on blockbuster Plavix, but investors have a lot to be excited about, especially the potential of diabetes drug Lantus, and also multiple sclerosis drug Aubagio (although it faces steep competition from Biogen). Watch and find out if Sanofi is a stock that should be on your radar.

• [By Susan J. Aluise]

  JNJ had a tough start to 2014, dropping nearly 9% between Jan. 17 and Feb. 4, but JNJ stock has rebounded nicely since then, gaining more than 8% since early March.

  Sanofi (SNY)

  Market Cap: $137 billion
  Current Dividend Yield: 3.7%

• [By Keith Speights]

  Monitoring closely
  I suspect that several companies were carefully monitoring what Keryx had to say this week. Sanofi (NYSE: SNY  ) could be one of them. Zerenex will compete head-to-head against�its (NYSE: SNY  ) Renvela. The French company's drug requires more intravenous iron and erythropoiesis-stimulating agents than Zerenex, so that could give a leg up to Keryx in the marketplace.

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Invest In 2015: Ophthotech Corp (OPHT)

Ophthotech Corporation, incorporated on January 05, 2007, is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of therapeutics to treat diseases of the eye. The Company�� advanced product candidate is Fovista, which the Company is developing for use in combination with anti-VEGF drugs that represent the current standard of care for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). Wet AMD is a serious disease of the central portion of the retina, known as the macula, which is responsible for detailed central vision and color perception. It is characterized by abnormal new blood vessel formation and growth, referred to as neovascularization, which results in blood vessel leakage, retinal distortion and scar formation. If untreated, the progressive retinal damage results in rapid, irreversible and severe vision loss. Wet AMD is the cause of blindness in patients over the age of 55 in the United States and the European Union.

The anti-VEGF market for the treatment of wet AMD consists predominantly of two drugs that are approved for marketing and primarily prescribed for the treatment of wet AMD, Lucentis and Eylea, and off-label use of the cancer therapy Avastin. The use of anti-VEGF drugs has significantly improved visual outcomes for patients with wet AMD who have been treated with these drugs as compared to untreated patients.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  If you have not been watching the biotech sector lately, you should start paying attention as the sector along with small cap biotech stocks like Cell Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: CTIC), BIND Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: BIND) and TNI BioTech (OTCMKTS: TNIB) continue to produce a steady stream of good news for investors thanks to positive industry trends. Moreover, Ophthotech Corp (NASDAQ: OPHT), Foundation Medicine Inc (NASDAQ: FMI), Evoke Pharma and Fate Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: FATE) are this week's biotech IPOs that will no doubt be watched closely by Wall Street and industry observers in general. With that in mind, consider the following biotech news or recent articles about the industry and the small cap players in it:

• [By Todd Campbell]

  That leads me to Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN  ) , Ophthotech (NASDAQ: OPHT  ) , and Portola (NASDAQ: PTLA  ) , three companies with important therapies that may very well be destined to become top sellers.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Shares of Ophthotech (NASDAQ: OPHT) got a boost, shooting up 25.78 percent to $39.54 after the company reported that it has entered into an ex-US licensing and commercialization deal with Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

• [By John Udovich]

  The biotech sector has been pretty exciting this year�with small cap biotech stocks Prana Biotechnology Limited (NASDAQ: PRAN) and TNI BioTech (OTCMKTS: TNIB) having recently produced noteworthy news for investors�while Acceleron Pharma, Inc (NASDAQ: XLRN), Ophthotech (NASDAQ: OPHT) and BIND Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BIND) have just�set term sheets for their upcoming IPOs. Just consider all of the following recent news:

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Invest In 2015: KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc (KBIO)

KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a United States-based company, which develops protein therapeutics. The Company develops and engineers antibodies and protein therapeutics. Its monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) technology that is being used for reengineering antibodies with products being developed in the areas of infectious disease, autoimmunity, and oncology. Its suite of technologies can also be used for discovery and engineering of other proteins, industrial enzymes and small molecule drugs. It conducts three clinical development programs in leukemia, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: KBIO) shares fell 64.48% to $0.65 in pre-market trading after the company reported top-line data from phase 2 study of KB001-A.

Top 5 Biotech Stocks To Invest In 2015: CEL-SCI Corp (CVM)

CEL-SCI Corporation (CEL-SCI), incorporated on March 22, 1983, is engaged in the business of Multikine cancer therapy; New cold fill manufacturing service to the pharmaceutical industry, and ligand epitope antigen presentation System (LEAPS) technology, with two products, hemagglutinin type 1 and neuraminidase type 1 (H1N1) swine flu treatment for H1N1 hospitalized patients and CEL-2000, a rheumatoid arthritis treatment vaccine.

Multikine

CEL-SCI's Multikine, is being developed for the treatment of cancer. It is a cancer immunotherapy drugs called Combination Immunotherapy because it combines active and passive immunity in one product. It is the only cancer immunotherapy that both kills cancer cells and activates the general immune system to destroy the cancer. Multikine target the tumor micro-metastases for treatment failure. Multikine is also applicable in many other solid tumors.

New Manufacturing Facility

CEL-SCI's facility manufactures Multikine for CEL-SCI's Phase III clinical trial. CEL-SCI offers the use of the facility as a service to pharmaceutical companies and others, particularly those that need to fill and finish their drugs in a cold environment. Fill and finish is the process of filling injectable drugs in a sterile manner.

LEAPS

CEL-SCI's patented T-cell Modulation Process uses heteroconjugates to direct the body to choose a specific immune response. The heteroconjugate technology, referred to as LEAPS, is intended to stimulate the human immune system to fight bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, as well as autoimmune, allergies, transplantation rejection and cancer. Administered like vaccines, LEAPS combines T-cell binding ligands with small, disease associated and peptide antigens.

Using the LEAPS technology, CEL-SCI has created a peptide treatment for H1N1 (swine flu) hospitalized patients. This LEAPS flu treatment is designed to focus on the conserved, non-changing epitopes of the di! fferent strains of Type A Influenza viruses, including swine, avian or bird, and Spanish Influenza. CEL-SCI's LEAPS flu treatment contains epitopes.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Look out AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV), and Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), you may want to look over your shoulder as well. There's a new immunology player coming to town, and its name is CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSEMKT:CVM). Yes, AbbVie may be the name behind blockbuster drug Humira - with nearly $10 billion in sales in 2012 - while Gilead Sciences is saving HIV patients' lives with immunological therapies Stribild and Complera. But, small cap company CEL-SCI may be closer to launching its own immunology drug sooner than most investors realize.

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  It may not have blazed a trail into the young, immunology segment of the biotech industry the way Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ:DNDN) did back in 2010 with the debut of Provenge. It may not have the same immunology pipeline (and company size) that ImmunoGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMGN) boasts. One thing is pretty certain about cancer-immunotherapy developer CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSEMKT:CVM) right now, however - its stock may be poised to dole out a much bigger foreseeable-future reward than DNDN or IMGN are.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  When biotech-savvy investors think of immunology stocks, they tend to gravitate towards a name like Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ:DNDN), which for all intents and purposes introduced the world's first cancer vaccine, Provenge, as a treatment for prostate cancer. Traders with a better-than-average knowledge of the immunology field may turn their attention to a company like CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSEMKT:CVM). CEL-SCI doesn't have a product on the market yet, but its head and neck cancer drug - which also uses immunology - is in Phase 3 testing right now, and looks very promising. There are other, and smaller, stocks within the world of immunology, however, that deserve a closer look from the market, and one of the most exciting ones further down the size scale is TNI Biotech Inc. (OTCMKTS:TNIB).

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Names like Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) and CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSEMKT:CVM) may have pioneered and even mainstreamed the idea of cancer immunology, but the nature of the branch of biotechnology means any company could send CEL-SCI or Amgen back-pedaling. See, it's not about size or deep pockets in the world of biotech anymore. It's about know-how and an idea, which can just as easily be discovered and developed by a small company as they can be a large company. That's why AMGN and CVM at least need to keep a close eye on budding immunology competitor TNI Biotech Inc. (OTCMKTS:TNIB).