Crowdsourcing AAN: Recap of R&R and Pharm3r Twitter Survey

Rodman & Renshaw has released a report in conjuction with Pharm3r about a data-mining project to crowd source opinions and in interest in new drugs on Twitter. Pharm3r is unique data-mining company that tags plain text in order to mine such disparate sources as chat boards, blogs, and Twitter feeds.

Analyst Michael King, Jr. writes,

"Our first foray into this novel approach to crowd-sourcing opinions and views on various topics begins with the recent 2012 American Academy of Neurology (AAN), which took place April 21-28 in New Orleans. While AAN deals with dozens of topics, Pharm3r gathered views on the 24 most common discussions. Relevant tweets were scanned for a predetermined list of topics between April 20th and 30th. Each topic is also accompanied by a sentiment score...

We view the combination of Twitter volume (number of tweets) and sentiment of those tweets as highly relevant data points in assessing interest in a drug within a period of time. The ability to view that interest compared to other relevant drugs at a time of high interest and tweeting provide an opportunity for potential insight into clinician, patient, and investor interest."

The results from the project include the following:

"Starting with multiple sclerosis (MS), the updated safety regulation in the US and EU spurred a significant volume of relatively negatively tweets for Gilenya (fingolimod), while Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) and BG-12 tweets generated relatively high sentiment...Turning to therapies for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), CK2017357 (‘357) from Cytokinetics (CYTK, Market Outperform) bested Biogen’s dexpramipexole in both volume and sentiment."

Read more below. 

Rodman renshaw life sciences conference update 5 11-12

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Cytokinetics ($CYTK) announces CK-2017357 receives fast track designation from the FDA for the potential treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Cytokinetics (NASDAQ: CYTK) announced that CK-2017357, its fast skeletal muscle troponin activator, has received Fast Track designation from the FDA for the potential treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

• Cytokinetics anticipates that results from two recently completed Phase II clinical trials, designed to assess the safety and tolerability of CK-2017357 in patients with ALS, will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA on April 25, 2012.
• Cytokinetics has met with the FDA's Division of Neurology Products and with the European Medicines Agency to discuss its progress in the development of CK-2017357 as a potential treatment for patients with ALS and the company's plans for its further development, including potential registration strategies.
• Cytokinetics is assessing options that may enable the initiation of a registration program for CK-2017357.
• Cytokinetics anticipates having additional interactions with U.S. and European regulatory authorities during 2012 to discuss the development of CK-2017357 as a potential treatment for patients with ALS, including potential registration strategies.

Daily Dose Conclusion: New treatments for ALS and competition could pressure cell therapy company Neuralstem (CUR).

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