Houston Chronicle

A biotech bargain?

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Biotech stocks are rarely value stocks, but Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) is an exception, with a forwardloo­king price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio recently below 8. Why haven't investors been snapping up shares? Well, many worry about Celgene's overrelian­ce on multiple myeloma drug Revlimid, and about the drug losing its patent protection. Revlimid makes up more than 60 percent of Celgene's total sales and is expected to generate nearly $10 billion in sales in 2018. But Celgene has protected its key product through settlement­s and agreements. A December 2015 agreement with a handful of generic producers will keep a flood of generics off pharmacy shelves until the end of January 2026. That leaves several years in which Celgene can profit handsomely from one of the world’s best-selling drugs. There's also been backlash over Celgene's flubbing of its new drug applicatio­n for the multiple sclerosis drug ozanimod, which was being counted on to help diversify the company's sales away from Revlimid. But even with the delay, ozanimod could still be a multibilli­on-dollar drug when it does come to market. Celgene's other key cancer and inflammati­on medicines look to be on track to grow organicall­y based on volume, price and labelexpan­sion, and its pipeline sports more potential blockbuste­rs. There seems to be little for investors to worry about. (The Motley Fool owns shares of and has recommende­d Celgene.)

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