What bias is this based on? “Researchers affiliated with Faron manage to cram Bex into every article they publish. If an investor starts reading these with 100% intensity, they can easily drift into a kind of confirmation bias.”
The article doesn’t seem to mention Bex, Cleve [Clevegen], or the gene encoding it, STAB1. It doesn’t seem to be in those three exercise/immunology references where Maija has been one of the authors, either. Maija has been involved in designing the research and performing laboratory analyses. She is an immunologist at MediCity in Turku and is involved in Turku’s collaborative networks, and fortunately, she is not regarded as someone who pushes one thing everywhere, so she remains acceptable as a neutral researcher for collaborations.
Bono is raving about the melanoma results. Likewise, Choueiri from Faron’s scientific board.
In Moderna’s cancer vaccine, mRNA (messenger RNA) is produced in a laboratory by utilizing mutations in the patient’s melanoma cell DNA. The RNA, or production instructions, is delivered in the vaccine, and the patient’s own immune system directs T cells to attack the right target—the cancer cells. It is similar to how our cells were taught to attack the coronavirus spike protein with the COVID-19 vaccine.
The question remains whether bexmarilimab can modify the microenvironment so that those educated T cells can act on cancer cells more effectively than with Merck’s pembro (pembrolizumab) alone, as given in that study. Another question is whether “bex” could play a role in the presentation of vaccine-generated antigens in macrophages, given that dendritic cells effectively perform this task and the vaccine now enhances the generation of the antigen response.
The patients in that study were slightly “easier” than those in the BLAZE trial because their visible melanoma had been surgically removed, though sometimes those cells remain hidden somewhere. The attempt is to vaccinate away that small amount. In the BLAZE trial, nivolumab, which has a mechanism of action similar to pembro, is used. The patients have already undergone prior pembro/nivo treatment, the disease has recurred, and they must have measurable disease.
The market values of Moderna and Merck jumped by about 40 billion USD yesterday, which was perhaps partly due to shorts, but it shows that cancer immunology is a hot topic.
Finnish business magazines really are apathetic.
No one bothers to compare the level of domestic research to that hype-filled US news (Moderna, etc.).
Does no one on the forum have any connections to them?
Edit: commenting requires almost fingerprints.
Here, we are completely helpless and ignorant of the potential of this entire sector. There are great companies that have done wonderful work. Truly world-class. There are no investors to be found, the media isn’t interested, and the government doesn’t care. Every year, subsidies automatically go to the same big companies that don’t necessarily even need the corporate support. Most of the time, it’s immediately distributed to the owners. We would rather let them go bankrupt or be sold off for pennies to foreign owners.
Finland has always had very few drug developers; if there had been many more and some had succeeded, it would probably be easier to secure funding/partners. The more developed the ecosystem, the more talent there is; it is unlikely that biotech firms are always acquired or partnered with just because of a single drug candidate, but also because of the talent ecosystem.
Reading for the weekend:
It might be time to start following the stock market frenzy in the US (maybe).
(It can even be seen on the Helsinki list today (maybe))
“Amid the chip bear market, healthcare is breaking out”
The machine summarized the article as follows:
The main message of the article is market rotation: investors’ money is shifting from the fading “bear market” of technology and semiconductor (chip cycle) stocks toward the strongly rising healthcare and biotechnology sector.
1. Main themes and market shift
Healthcare breakout: The healthcare industry (e.g., XLV ETF) is breaking out to new highs and showing strong technical and fundamental strength while the rest of the market drifts.
Semiconductor (chip) downturn: The massive rally in the tech and chip cycle (such as AI chips) has stalled at the threshold of a bear market, leading investors to seek safer and more productive targets for their capital.
2. The significance of Moderna and Merck as a catalyst
Moderna’s historic stock jump: The biggest single driver behind the sector’s rise has been the breakthrough result from the Moderna and Merck cancer vaccine (INTerpath-001 Phase 3), which sent Moderna’s stock and the entire biotechnology sector into a new rally.
Sector valuation levels: Healthcare and biotech stocks were long undervalued relative to the rest of the market. Successful cancer drug trials and high expectations for M&A have led institutional investors to recognize the growth potential of the sector.
Money is not leaving the stock market; rather, it is flowing from the AI and chip sector into healthcare and biotechnology, which are in the midst of a new market rally.
