Category Archives: Biotech Letter

Healthcare’s Falling Knife

While driving back from my nephew’s soccer game last weekend, I needed to pick up a prescription at my local pharmacy. The line was moving at glacial speed, so I struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me, who mentioned she worked as a nurse at a UnitedHealth-affiliated clinic. “Our patients are […]

In Biotech We Trust Especially If It’s This Quiet Riser

While driving back from a three-day biotech conference, I got a call from an old friend who runs a major healthcare hedge fund in New York. He was looking for new ideas after taking a beating on some pharma shorts that went sideways during the recent market rally. “What’s worth buying in biotech these days?” […]

One Call From Tahoe

Last week, while hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail with my 50-pound pack (doctor’s orders), I received a call from a returning Mad Hedge Concierge subscriber who was in a particularly foul mood. Following the advice of another “expert” I won’t mention, he had dumped all his biotech holdings after Vertex’s Q1 earnings miss. “Aren’t pharmaceutical […]

A Double Helix Of Opportunity

I never fully appreciated the potential of gene therapy until last fall when my college friend Eric called with surprising news. His 14-year-old daughter Sophie, who’d struggled with sickle cell disease her whole life, had undergone treatment with Casgevy, a CRISPR-based gene therapy developed by CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) and Vertex (VRTX). Six months later, she […]