Aug 27, 2010 10:04 AM PDT
President Obama has been rubbing elbows more than ever with the pharmaceutical industry and drug companies. Today, they pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors.
So here are a few stocks that should benefit from this agreement.
OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIP) is a small biotech company with a big hand in the treatment of lung cancer. Just last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted its flagship product Tarceva for review as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
Taken in pill form, Tarceva has shown to slow down progression of the disease for a little more than a month.
OSIP ended the last trading session at $28.05. So far the stock has hit a 52-week low of $27.66 and 52-week high of $53.71. OSI Pharmaceuticals stock has been showing support around 27.14 and resistance in the 29.18 range.
After the FDA approved STAAR Surgical’s (NASDAQ: STAA) Epiphany injector system, shares of the stock rose nearly 100%. The product, which will begin shipping in July, is used in eye surgeries.
STAAR has been on fire for the past month. In mid-May this stock traded under $1.00. and traded north of $2.00 before coming back to $1.95 today.
The Ophthalmology and Eye Care Stocks Index is beating the S&P 500 by 4.3% over the last month.
Akorn (NASDAQ: AKRX) develops ophthalmic and injectable pharmaceutical products. One of the company’s main growth drivers is its generic Tetanus Diphtheria vaccine, which the company estimates has already taken 25% of the market share versus its brand-name competitor in just a little over a year.
Today, the company announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire from Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) all rights in the U.S. and Canada to manufacture, market and sell the lyophilized antibiotic Capastat Sulfate (capreomycin for injection, USP). Akorn will own the Capastat NDA and expects to launch the product in the third quarter of this year.
Akorn recently moved above its 50-day moving average, so now is a good time to add some shares of it to your portfolio.
