Sunday, May 01, 2011

Stem Cell Funding Ban Reversed: What About the Stocks?

Last week was a busy week for stem cells. The suspension of Federal funding for stem cell research has just been overturned by a United States Appeals Court. The two to one ruling last week said that the law against Federal funding was ambiguous. In addition, Dr. Paul Sharpe spoke at the First International Conference on Dental and Craniofacial Stem Cells in New York last week. He discussed the use of regenerative dentistry to regrow teeth with dental stem cells.

Research has been continuing into the use of stem cells for gene therapy and the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and many other medical conditions. Stem cells can come from various sources including embryos, cord blood, which is the blood from umbilical cords, and even in baby teeth. There are several publicly traded companies in the stem cell field, according to the free list of stem cell stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

For example, Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) is a Connecticut based company with an $8.9 billion market capitalization that is involved in the development of biologic therapeutic products for the treatment of hematologic and cardiovascular disorders, auto-immune diseases, and cancer. The company licenses porcine embryonic stem cells for transgenic animals. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 93 and a forward PE of 32.

Cellgene (CELG) is a $27.4 billion market cap company involved in the discovery and production of therapies designed to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases. One of the company's main products is Thalomid, which is used for the treatment of erythema nodosum leprosum, a complication of leprosy. They also received a patent on placental stem cell recovery. The stock sports a PE ratio of 31 and a forward PE of 14.

Integra Lifesciences Holdings (IART) is a New Jersey based $1.5 billion market cap company that develops, manufactures, and sells medical devices, implants, biomaterials, and instruments to the stem cell, surgery, and soft tissue repair markets. The stock trades at 24 times current earnings, and 16 times forward earnings.

For a free list of over a dozen stem cell stocks which you can download, sort, and update, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

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