Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMY), Pharmacyclics, Inc. (PCYC): Hedging Against Leukemia

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As with the treatments, I could spend an entire day talking about what’s coming down the pipeline and still might leave a few dozen potential therapies out. What can definitely be said is that researchers and big pharmaceutical companies are certainly throwing their weight around with regard to research into leukemia.

If you were to look at this from an investing perspective, I think you have some clear-cut winners in this space — although I’d say picking a favorite might be impossible.

Obviously, both experimental drugs have a lot going for them at the moment. Pharmacyclics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCYC) has a collaborative partnership with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)’s Janssen that could net it up to $975 million in royalty payments. Ibrutinib has performed splendidly in trials, but it’ll certainly need to keep those expectations sky high if it wants to support its already frothy valuation.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) offers promise from its existing pipeline of HIV and hepatitis drugs, but is still a long way away from seeing any bottom-line impact from Idelalisib. Make no mistake about what I’m saying here: I like Gilead a lot — but any real results from Idelalisib are still years down the road.

I think the most solid play in leukemia is Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE). Bosulif, which was approved last year, went head-to-head against Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS)’ Gleevec in CML, and returned blood counts in 55% of patients to normal after 48 weeks. Gleevec, during the same period, was effective in normalizing blood counts in 33% of patients. Bosulif offered some of the top progression-free response times and a high cytogenetic response rate, making it the most attractive second-line treatment available — in my opinion, at least.

Stay tuned next week, when we tackle the current and upcoming therapies for the treatment of pancreatic cancer in this “Tackling Cancer” series.

The article Tackling Cancer: Leukemia’s Biggest Current and Upcoming Players originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of Johnson & Johnson and recommends Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, and Seattle Genetics.

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