Three Hot BioPharma Investment Plays: ARNA, JAZZ, and PRAN

 I have a few investment plays in the BioPharma field that I would like to share with everyone. These plays include Arena Pharmacueticals, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, and Prana Biotechnology. The first play is Arena Pharmaceuticals NASDAQ:ARNA. JP Morgan recently downgraded the stock Monday August 2 to Neutral, however Jim Cramer recommended the stock as a buy last Friday on his show MadMoney. Today's afterhours earnings estimate for Q2 was a better than expected loss and I see the stock rising heavily in the next month with the highly anticipated FDA panel review September 16th. ---I have since changed my outlook on all these stocks and actually recommend shorting them lately.

Drug Trials Test Bold Plan to Slow Alzheimer’s

Image via Wikipedia From the NY Times
By GINA KOLATA
Published: July 16, 2010

Marilyn Maldonado is not quite sure why she is at the Memory Enhancement Center in the seaside town of Oakhurst, N.J.

“What are we waiting for?” she asks. About 10 minutes later, she asks again. Then she asks again.

She is waiting to enter a new type of Alzheimer’s drug study that will, in the boldest effort yet, test the leading hypothesis about how to slow or stop this terrifying brain disease.

The disease is defined by freckles of barnacle-like piles of a protein fragment, amyloid beta, in the brain. So, the current thinking goes, if you block amyloid formation or get rid of amyloid accumulations — plaque — and if you start treatment before the disease is well under way, you might have a chance to alter its course.

On Tuesday, that plan got a new push. The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association proposed new guidelines for diagnosis to find signs of Alzheimer’s in people who do not yet have severe symptoms, or even any symptoms at all.