Shares of Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK) ended Thursday session in red amid volatile trading. The shares closed down -0.11 points or -1.04% at $10.43 with 1.76 million shares getting traded. Post opening the session at $10.59, the shares hit an intraday low of $10.42 and an intraday high of $10.66 and the price vacillated in this range throughout the day. The company has a market cap of $5.76 billion and the numbers of outstanding shares have been calculated to be 547.44 million shares.
Opko Health Inc. (OPK) on May 10, 2016 announced the appointment of Thomas Nusbickel as Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Marketing and Market Access to support the anticipated launch of RAYALDEE®.
Mr. Nusbickel has over 25 years of pharmaceutical experience with established large companies, such as Hospira, Amgen and Abbott, with a career long focus on specialty products and nephrology. He has been involved in numerous product launches including serving as the global lead for Amgen’s launch of Sensipar, and has deep connections with managed care organizations and with key nephrology opinion leaders. Prior to joining OPKO, Mr. Nusbickel served as Hospira’s Head of U.S. Market Access, Biologics and as Amgen’s Executive Director, Value Access and Advocacy.
“OPKO is proud to add Tom to our growing management team responsible for commercializing RAYALDEE in the U.S. Tom has extensive, successful experience in launching new products in the U.S. chronic kidney disease market,” said Phillip Frost, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OPKO, “and we are confident that he will help drive Rayaldee to great success.”
Shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) ended Thursday session in red amid volatile trading. The shares closed down -0.13 points or -4.42% at $2.81 with 2.18 million shares getting traded. Post opening the session at $2.94, the shares hit an intraday low of $2.81 and an intraday high of $2.94 and the price vacillated in this range throughout the day. The company has a market cap of $449.74 million and the numbers of outstanding shares have been calculated to be 158.96 million shares.
Geron Corporation (GERN) on May 05, 2016 reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016.
First Quarter 2016 Results
For the first quarter of 2016, the company reported operating revenues of $749,000 and operating expenses of $9.8 million compared to $537,000 and $10.0 million, respectively, for the comparable 2015 period. Revenues for the first quarter of 2016 and 2015 included royalty and license fee revenues under various non-imetelstat agreements. Operating expenses in the first quarter of 2015 included restructuring charges of $406,000 in connection with the company’s organizational resizing announced in March 2015. Net loss for the first quarter of 2016 was $8.8 million, or $0.06 per share, compared to $9.3 million, or $0.06 per share, for the comparable 2015 period. The company ended the first quarter of 2016 with $141.9 million in cash and investments.
Research and development expenses for the first quarter of 2016 and 2015 were $5.0 million for each period. Research and development expenses for 2016 primarily reflect the net result of higher costs for the company’s proportionate share of clinical development expenses under the imetelstat collaboration with Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen), partially offset by lower personnel related expenses as a result of the 2015 organizational resizing. The company expects research and development expenses to increase during the remainder of the year as the clinical development of imetelstat continues in collaboration with Janssen.
General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2016 were $4.8 million compared to $4.6 million for the comparable 2015 period. The increase in general and administrative expenses primarily reflects the net result of higher non-cash stock-based compensation expense, partially offset by lower personnel related costs due to the 2015 organizational resizing.