What Is The ASH Conference And Why Should Biotech Investors Care?

The American Society of Hematology, a 58-year old organization of hematologists, holds its annual meeting in December. The meeting boasts over 20,000 attendees.

The Schedule

The 58th Annual Meeting of the organization, scheduled for December 3 to 6, is held in San Diego.The first meeting was held in the Atlantic City, New Jersey in April 1958.

For those interested in the event, the full schedule can be located here.

The ASH Annual Meeting comes ahead of the JPMorgan 35th Annual 2017 Healthcare Conference scheduled to be held between January 9 and 12, 2017, in San Francisco.

The Importance

Meetings and conferences such as these, which are attended by a number of healthcare professionals and investors, present a platform for biotech and healthcare companies to showcase their pipeline, efficacy and safety profiles and the potential of their treatment candidates and issue guidance for the coming year.

Some of the biotech stocks, historically and consistently, generate positive returns around the conference. A report carried by CNBC based on Kensho showed that Dynavax Technologies Corporation DVAX, Exelixis, Inc. EXEL and Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MNTA previously generated returns in excess of 70 percent in the first five days after the start of the ASH Annual Meeting. Thus, these meetings provide a significant trading opportunity.

Just as there is potential for meaningful upside, there are also chances of these stocks being dumped, if key catalytic events do not meet investor expectations.

ASH Annual Meeting 2016

The ASH Annual Meeting of 2016 focuses on the latest clinical, basic and translational research related to hematologic, malignancies and benign blood disorders. About 5,000 scientific abstracts were scheduled to be presented over the four-day event.

Some of the anticipated presentations this year include:

• Practice-changing results in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL.
• New results with CAR T cell therapy.
• Large trial of transplants in Myeloma.
• A new agent for sickle cell disease.

Companies, which derive a chunk of their revenues from hematology include:

• Acceleron Pharma Inc XLRN.
• Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc AGIO.
• Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALXN.
• Amgen, Inc. AMGN.
• bluebird bio Inc BLUE.
• Celgene Corporation CELG.
• Incyte Corporation INCY.
• Kite Pharma Inc KITE.
• Seattle Genetics, Inc. SGEN.