GT Advanced Technologies Inc (GTAT), Outerwall Inc (OUTR), UniPixel Inc (UNXL): The Nasdaq’s 5 Most Hated Stocks

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ:DNDN)
Why are investors shorting Dendreon?

• Short-sellers have been piling into biotechnology firm Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ:DNDN) because the sale of Provenge, its only treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration, hasn’t gone well. Provenge, at $93,000 annually, is priced considerably higher than many of the competing treatments for advanced prostate cancer, which has made physicians reluctant to prescribe the therapy for fear of not being reimbursed. In response, Dendreon cut jobs and reduced expenses in order to make its cash stretch further.

Is this short interest deserved?

• Skepticism had, until recently, been well-deserved. However, Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ:DNDN) shareholders received exciting news just two weeks ago that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use — Europe’s equivalent to our FDA panel — recommended the approval of Provenge in Europe. Although the European Medicines Agency isn’t required to follow the opinion of its panel, it often does. An approval in the EU, combined with its domestic cost-cutting efforts, could go a long way in getting Dendreon closer to profitability and could once again reignite the takeover chatter than once surrounded the company. I would advise short-sellers to start looking elsewhere.

Which of the Nasdaq’s most hated companies do you think has the best chance to burn short-sellers? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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, and recommends, Apple. It also owns shares of Dendreon.

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