"and the reason being major buyers control both buying and selling of stocks to keep thier entry price down .They can handle the anns. for a certain time but not forever ..then watch the action ". on another note here is whats happening overseas ............ A watchdog group is asking the US Attorney in New York to investigate short sales by hedge fund manager Marin Shkreli and others to determine whether he illegally manipulated prices in various drug and biotech stocks, including Neoprobe, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Nektar Therapeutics, Zalicus and Mesoblast. And the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington maintains he has often accomplished this by writing negative assessment in his blog on SeekingAlpha.
“Mounting evidence suggests Wall Street investors are inserting themselves into the FDA drug approval process to manipulate stock prices for financial gain,” CREW executive director Melanie Sloan says in a statement. “Thoroughly researching companies before making investment decisions is smart; intentionally making false claims to a federal agency to drive down stock prices is illegal.”
“Mr. Shkreli seems more interested in lining his own pockets than in fostering groundbreaking medical advances,” she continues. “The US Attorney’s Office has done an impressive job prosecuting insider trading, sending the clear message to Wall Street that such conduct will not be tolerated. Short-sellers like Mr. Shkreli who manipulate markets and government agencies for private financial gain should be pursued just as vigorously.”
Beyond his writings on SeekingAlpha, the watchdog cites other alleged efforts to manipulate stock prices. One example was a citizen’s petition he filed last year with the FDA in an effort to prevent NeoProbe from having its imaging agent reviewed. Shkreli, who runs MSMB Capital Management, wanted the FDA to decline to review a pair of Phase III clinical trials that were conducted by Neoprobe due to what he called “severe deficiencies and flaws” (back story). The application was accepted.
CREW also points to other instances in which he allegedly “worked actively behind the scenes to affect the outcome of the FDA’s regulatory process with other drugs where he had substantial financial conflicts of interest.” In one instance, in September 2010, he asked to be included on an agency panel to review the Arena Pharmaceutical diet pill called Belviq, which was recently approved. In pitching himself, he claimed the pill was not tested properly and acknowleged he may benefit financially if the FDA requested an “outcomes-based study.”
Two months later, he wrote FDA commish Margaret Hamburg to ask that the agency deny approval for the Mannkind inhaled insulin called Afrezza, which has encountered numerous setbacks. He argued that recent tests indicated the product had not met primary endpoints and again acknowledged that he would benefit if the agency agreed with his views. “However, acknowledging these conflicts did not make them disappear,” CREW writes to US Attorney Preet Bharara (read the letter).
“A growing and unexplored problem in Washington appears to be how people are inserting themselves into government regulatory processes to shift stock prices and make money,” Sloan tells us. “It’s hard for us to know the extent of the problem, but the FDA is a place where approval or failure to approve can drive enormous profit… This should also be of concern to the pharmaceutical industry. A hedge fund manager with no healthcare expertise – and Shkreli does not have any – should be not allowed to profit as he attempts to insert himself into the process.”
You can read various letters and e-mails written by Shkreli, as well as a letter that CREW wrote earlier this year to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which the agency was urged to investigate the fund manager (see them here). Sloan tells us that CREW did not receive a reply from the agency. We asked Shkreli and the US Attorney’s office for comment and will update you accordingly.
[UPDATE: Shkreli called us around 3 pm ET today and had this to say: "Every three or six months or so, CREW attempts to say something bad about me. I don’t really quite understand, given that they’ve been ‘reporting’ about this for over a year. But there hasn't been any progress in their attempt to villianize me... CREW seems to be out of touch with what the regulatory agencies care about. If anything, there should be more people like me, in my opinion, who are willing to make their opinion well known and not be ashamed to admit they feel strongly one way or the other about something.
"...They cite that I’ve had dealings with regulatory agencies. And they’re very sensitive to that. I can understand their perspective, but reality is that FDA is an organization, that in my opinion, thrives on public opinion... They enjoy input... If I feel that I have something important to tell the FDA, as a citizen, then it's my right to do so. And I’ve certainly always disclosed very clearly every conflict I have. I’ve sent documents to CREW and they refuse to acknowledge that I’ve cooperated with their investigation. They claim they received the documents through Freedom of Information requests, when in reality, I’m the one who sent them to them.
Shkreli adds the SEC has not contacted him about the letter CREW sent earlier this year to the agency and also disputes the claim that he knows nothing about drug development, pointing to the recent creation of Retrophin to buy and develop medicines (see this). "I think I’m an expert in drug development. It's wildly inaccurate (to suggest I don’t have expertise). I have a team of doctors who assist me in researching pharmaceuticals... But if I have a problem seeing a weight-loss drug getting approval, I don’t see a problem with stating that. I don’t see it as any different as a lobbyist saying that."] Cheers VIN
MSB Price at posting:
$5.90 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)