Piper Jaffray on Insulet Corp - $PODD: "Growth Balanced by Near-Term Risk: Initiate at Neutral"

Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ: PODD) is an innovative medical device company based in Bedford, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2000 with the mission of improving the lives of people with diabetes. Specifically, through its revolutionary OmniPod Insulin Management System, Insulet seeks to expand the use of insulin pump therapy. The OmniPod is a discreet and easy-to-use system that eliminates many of the issues associated with conventional pumps. Improvements include OmniPod's lack of tubing; automated, virtually pain-free insertion; and two straightforward parts that communicate wirelessly. By breaking down the barriers to insulin pump therapy, Insulet hopes to provide both a superior treatment option and life-long health benefits for people with diabetes. 

Our Daily Dose Thoughts: The Diabetes and Metabolic Disease area remains a vast and great unmet medical need. PODD is an exciting play in the Type 1 diabetes space. We are also watching other names in this area such as Islet Sciences (ONCE) which if successful in the cell therapy side of type 1 diabetes (this is encapsulated porcine cells) has potential to totally change the way we approach type 1 diabetes.

Piper Jaffray has issued a company note on Insulet. The report states: 

"As one of only a few pure plays in the diabetes device market, Insulet offers the only tubeless patch pump in the US, with roughly 10% overall market share. We see the opportunity for patch pumps as still in early stages of adoption, and view 2012 as a transition year for PODD. The potential Q2 launch of the company’s next generation OmniPod® should provide enhanced patient benefits and adoption of the device, as well as increased product margins. However, the oft delayed product does not yethave final FDA approval. Once approved, we believe high volume manufacturing and customer conversion activities add additional short term investor risk. Given uncertain timing of launch events we rate PODD Neutral with a $21 price target, pending better visibility on timing for the conversion to the next gen product."

Read the full report below. 

Piper Jaffray company note on insulet corp 3 22-12

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Orgenesis licenses IP covering diabetes therapy - $ORGS

ORGS News Update:

Tel Hashomer Medical Research Infrastructure and Services Ltd. (Tel Hashomer, Israel) granted Orgenesis Inc. (OTCBB: ORGS) an exclusive license to develop and commercialize IP covering functional autologous insulin-producing cells (AIPC) regeneration technology as a therapy for diabetes. Tel Hashomer will receive an annual fee of $15,000, and is eligible for up to $3 million in milestones, plus a 3.5% royalty. Tel Hashomer is also eligible for 16% of all sublicensing fees. The AIPC technology involves the use of a patient's own liver cells to generate functional insulin-producing autologous cells, which can then be transplanted back into a patient's liver. Orgenesis gained $0.81 (117%) to $1.50 on Tuesday.

Daily Dose Comment: This is interesting news but our concern is that the AIPC technology will still be at risk from being destroyed by the same auto-immune reaction that wiped out the patients islet cells int he first place. We would focus on islet biosciences (using porcine islet cells encapsulated in an algenate) as a more compelling technology. We like this company born from the ashes of the old micro-islet.