The TurnAround in Dendrion ? DNDN Presents at JP Morgan in SFO

Last week Dendreon NASDAQ: DNDN reported stronger than expected sales for Provenge sales at $82 Million generally above "street" consensus expectations. The company has a strong cash balance (approx. $600M) to fund the Provenge launch through to profitability. The stock rallied sharply starting the week at $8 and closing north of $12. This sets the stage for continued expansion for Dendrion and is welcome news for earlier stage cancer immune based therapies in development.

This week the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference begins in San Fransico, Monday through Thursday. Healthcare companies from all over the world converge for a week in meetings with sell side analysts, bankers and institutional portfolio managers.

We have been highlighting the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) efforts as an industry group to highlight the progress that cell based companies have made over the past decade. To this end, ARM has organized a two day mini-conference (we have previously posted the schedule). What's special about the ARM event is that the companies will all present in a panels style format.

Industry leaders like Dendrion (presenting on a panel Wed) will be alongside other earlier stage companies in their market niche such as Immunocellular (IMUC), Coronado (CNDO), PrimaBioMed (PRR.AX) as well as other players in the space. We believe this will be a great venue for investors to learn not only about where Dendrion may be going as a stock, but what's next in the cancer-immunotherapy space.

We will be present throughout the day and blogging on the various panels as we go through the motions of comparing and contrasting the various approaches of the companies. For example we are keenly focused to listen to the cardiology panel where industry leader MesoBlast (MSB) will present alongside NeoStem (Amorcyte-NBS), Athersys (ATHX) and Cytori (CYTX).  Baxter (BAX) will not be present for the panel but investors should take note of their progress (P3 trial in cardiac ischemia).

We believe the next major breakthroughs on the regen side will likely be found in the cardiology space.

Conference on Cell Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease (January 25-27) NYC - Baxter & More...

We picked up on an advertisement from the Cardiovascular Research Foundation for the seventh International Conference on Cell Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease. January 25-27, 2012 in New York. What struck is the lineup of the companies and panelists and the implications for the cardiovascular companies in the space, such as Baxter, Cytori, MesoBlast, NeoStem.

What caught our eye is the panel on the second day, "Acute Injury: STEMI and NSTEMI". The panel will be moderated by some very well-known KOL's such as Henricus J. Duckers, Gregg W. Stone, Andreas M. Zeiher. Dr Zeiher is one of the founders of a German private company also working on a cell based therapy (cells that follow an ischemic gradient) for AMI. Cytori will talk about the PRECISE trial (Adipose (from fat) stem cells for chronic ischemia. Dr. Doug Losorodo (who is not the principal investigator in the Baxter phase III trial) which uses CD 34+ cells (just like NeoStem (NBS) Amorcyte trial) will also present on the following panel which will review CLI (Critical limb ischemia) and CMI (Chronic Myocardial Ischemia). Even Dr. Robert Bolli who was recently features on CBS talking about his myocytes that repair dead heart muscle will be a panelist.

Our take away message: When we see Baxter and other prominent researchers now talking in these forums , presenting data and defined mechanisms of action, it raises our confidence level that proof of concept from trials is not far behind. Watch the work that NeoStem (NBS) is doing in AMI as a value play versus Baxter (BAX) with a very similar therapeutic approach. Doug Losordo (PI Baxter) has been working in the space for 20 years and adds a measure of credibility as do the entire panel members.

Link to the Conference web site: http://celltherapy.crf.org/home.html

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Day 2 Panel Agenda

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Acute Injury: STEMI and NSTEMI

8:30 am - 9:55 am

Moderators: Henricus J. Duckers, Gregg W. Stone, Andreas M. Zeiher

8:30 am

Trial I. Long-term FU of Patients with an AMI Treated with Adipose-Derived Stem Cells (APOLLO)

Henricus J. Duckers

8:40 am

Trial II. LATE-TIME and Others

Stephen G. Ellis, Timothy D. Henry

8:50 am

Trial III. MAPC Results and Directions

Marc S. Penn, Warren Sherman

9:00 am

Trial IV. TBA

Raj Makkar

9:10 am

EPTS

Henricus J. Duckers, Marc S. Penn

9:25 am

Discussion

Break

9:55 am - 10:25 am

CLI/CMI

10:25 am - 12:00 pm

Moderators: Francisco Fernandez-Aviles, Amit Patel

10:25 am

Trial I. CD34+ Cells for Refractory Angina

Douglas W. Losordo

10:35 am

Trial II. Adipose-Derived Cells for Chronic Ischemia: The PRECISE Trial

Francisco Fernandez-Aviles

10:45 am

Trial III. Update on Standardization of CD133 Intramyocardial BMSC

Gustav Steinhoff

10:55 am

Trial IV. BMAC for CLI: Status of a Phase 3 Trial

Thomas F. O'Donnell

11:05 am

Trial V. Placenta-Derived Cells for CLI

Christof Stamm

11:15 am

Abstract Presentation

11:20 am

EPTS

Timothy D. Henry, Amit Patel

11:35 am

Discussion

Lunch

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Heart Failure and Chronic Disease

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Les Miller

1:00 pm

Trial I. SCIPIO

Roberto Bolli

1:10 pm

Trial II. Cell Wave

Andreas M. Zeiher

1:20 pm

Trial III. SDF-1 and SDF-2

Marc S. Penn

1:30 pm

Trial IV. Cardiocyte-Driven Bone-Marrow Precursors

Jozef Bartunek

1:40 pm

Trial V. MPC's for Ischemic and Non-Ischemic Heart Failure

Emerson C. Perin

1:50 pm

EPTS

Jozef Bartunek, Randall J. Lee, Amit Patel

2:05 pm

Discussion