Can Bill Gates Cure Cancer?

Just a quick note to update you on a teaser that I wrote about a little while ago … it’s being repeated again.

This time, the email is going out from a different part of the Lynn Carpenter empire, as part of the Total Health Breakthroughs email newsletter … and they’d still like you to sign up for the Rising Tide Letter (still $99 a year).

But now they’re selling it based not specifically on the Baker Brothers, but on something else … here’s the snippet:

“These famous — and married — philanthropists are the two most giving people you might ever meet. Their sole purpose is to invest in revolutionary advancements that could easily enhance someone’s life… sometimes even extending it …. So when I saw that they bought five percent of a small biotech company, I had to see what it was all about.”

Those famous, married philanthropists are indeed quite giving, especially if you measure the extent of their giving-ness by the amount they’ve given. They are, of course, Bill and Melinda Gates … and their foundation, which does a fair amount of healthcare investing both to make money and to support worthy causes, has indeed picked up about 5% of this company.

And the company remains, as those who saw the original writeup I did will no doubt remember, Seattle Genetics (SGEN).

You can check out the first article I put up about this “Baby Biotech Blue-Chip” here if you’re interested. My opinion on this one hasn’t changed (the shares have moved up a bit, perhaps thanks to the attention brought by this recommendation) … but perhaps yours has.

Feel free to share, and happy investing to all.

The author will always disclose any direct long or short equity, debt or option position in any stocks written about as of the day of publication, and will not trade in any stocks mentioned for three days (72 hours) after publication. Full disclaimer is at the bottom of the page.

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Robert Hsu and the Motley Fool are both saying…

1. There is a very similar situation with a stock that looks remarkably similar in its ticker: ZGEN vs. SGEN. I’m surprised ZGEN hasn’t been hyped. I first noticed ZymoGenetics, also located in Seattle, as it happens, from a pattern of very heavy insider buying, as well as increasingly hefty buys from Warburg Pincus. For those watching SGEN, they should add ZGEN as well.

   ZymoGenetics makes thrombin, theprotein used by surgeons to stop minor bleeding during surgery. Of the three thrombin products on the market, ZymoGenetics’ Recothrom is the only protein in the recombinant form, which means it isn’t derived from animal or human blood and is thus viewed as safer than its counterparts. The companies that make animal-derived thrombin are fighting hard, Omrix and King, but in previous situations like this, the recombinant ultimately wins out. Who wants cow-blood protein, given all the mad cow scares?

   Anyhow, worth a look.

   [Reply]

   Posted by Woman with Portfolio | March 13, 2008, 5:07 pm

2. Maybe there are data somewhere that give a different perspective, but a quick look at Yahoo Finance shows that recent institutional selling of ZGEN was about five times the level of recent insider buying.

   [Reply]

   Posted by Catawba | March 13, 2008, 6:35 pm

3. Check the dates. Recent insider buying has increased, and purchases by Warburg Pincus have increased. There was some unloading by institutions previously when King and Omrix made it clear they were going to fight. By the way, I’m not recommending the stock except as one to watch and compare with SGEN.

   [Reply]

   Posted by Woman with Portfolio | March 13, 2008, 7:36 pm

4. Lynn Carpenter, wasn’t she with Stansberry at one time? I have to know.

   [Reply]

   Posted by Doug Eatough | March 14, 2008, 12:53 pm

5. Doug, as far as I know Lynn was with the Agora octopus of publications as of a few years ago with her Fleet Street stuff — and I think the Rising Tide Letter is also affiliated with Agora, the interconnectedless of all these newsletter publishers can be totally baffling. Agora still owns part of Stansberry & Associates as well, last I heard, and Porter used to work directly for them before he set out on his own, but I don’t know if Stansberry and Carpenter actually ever worked together. I need a flow chart.

   [Reply]

   Posted by StockGumshoe | March 14, 2008, 1:56 pm

6. And Catawba, you’ve got a ticker typo — this is SGEN (Seattle Genetics) not ZGEN (ZymoGenetics). SGEN hasn’t had any insider or institutional selling to speak of lately, but ZGEN definitely did have some institutional selling (though their insiders are still buying). I know nothing about ZGEN, other than that their name is pretty cool.

   [Reply]

   Posted by StockGumshoe | March 14, 2008, 2:00 pm

7. I like women authors.
   I call them gurettes.

   You will meet Lynn C. at http://rtvl.com/

   You will meet Vivian at http://www.global-investing.com/new/index.htm and at http://www.zacks.com/experts/search/editor_bio.php?newsletter_id=160&editor_id=134

   Jackie.

   [Reply]

   Posted by Jackie | March 14, 2008, 3:47 pm

8. Lynn Carpenter was with the Fleet Street Letter. It was a very nice, safe profitable newsletter and very much unlike most of the schlock Agora publishes. Lynn Carpenter probably deserves better than the newsletter business, but most of us deserve something better. Her Optionist service is highly profitable for me. I find most newsletters too conservative for my style at this moment. Stock Gumshoe is a good tool for puts, because I watch the pump then play dive.

   [Reply]

   

   keith li Reply:
   June 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 am

   Dear Peter,

   Any idea what happened to the optionist website ?
   Is Lynn still running the service ?

   [Reply]

   Posted by Peter | April 8, 2008, 12:52 pm