As you know, SC stock prices have gone up even in this period of deep market pessimism. Weekly, new and seemingly miraculous stem cell-related cures are coming to light. The message is getting across even in important nonscientific publications like The Economist.
A recent article was subtitled, "American attitudes to stem-cell therapies are changing fast." Inside the article is this critical paragraph:
"Barack Obama has promised to reverse the ban. When that happens, American academics will no longer have to watch enviously from the sidelines as their colleagues in Australia, Britain, China, the Czech Republic, Israel, Singapore and South Korea push ahead. But though the legislative wheels have yet to start turning, the mood has already shifted."
This article is particularly applicable, as it cites two important SC players ― both in my Breakthrough Technology Alert portfolio.
Despite the great performance of the SC sector recently, I'm not encouraging you to buy these top stocks for short-term gains. Even if prices do go up significantly in the near future, these are long-term plays. Don't be distracted by fluctuations. This is the wrong time to even think about taking profits. With prices so low, this is the time to pick up ridiculously underpriced top stocks and hold onto them until they produce truly transformational profits.
Inevitably, the wider community of investors will get the stem cell message. Then, we'll see truly dramatic increases in SC top stocks. In fact, I'm predicting another irrational bubble and correction before prices head up permanently. I suspect the bubble will be sparked by high-profile news stories. My guess is that a group of celebrities will admit they've rejuvenated their hearts and skin using offshore SC treatments. That may be the time to cash in some, though not all, of your holdings.
Just as you shouldn't jump at short-run upturns, don't overreact to downturns. There has never been a medical technology as powerful as stem cells. They will entirely remake the face of medicine. As Sanjay Gupta, Obama's surgeon general pick, has said, "A new kind of medicine is being created that will definitely break out of the realm of science fiction and become reality. There are places around the world where people are already doing this, such as Moscow…and, certainly, Korea."
Don't let yourself be panicked by high-profile analysts who give short sell orders and then talk down the companies they've shorted. This happens in every sector, and regenerative medicine is no exception. Prices may dip in response to highly publicized attacks, but this is simply self-fulfilling prophesy. It says nothing about the long-run fundamentals of the targeted companies.
Similarly, don't get distracted by stories such as the one that broke last week about the Israeli boy. He had developed benign tumors after getting some sort of SC therapy. The therapy included injections delivered directly into the brain from an illegal source in Russia in 2002. That was long before the real breakthroughs in the science. One horrified stem cell company insider told me, "We have no idea what they injected into the kid." Despite the fact that reports indicate that the therapy did save the child's life, news seemed to send stem cell stock prices down temporarily.
For perspective, let's sample some other recent stem cell news.
Miracle Stem Cell Cures Keep on Coming
Egyptian scientists have announced that adult stem cells can prevent diabetes-associated heart dysfunction. I've already written about the successful treatment of multiple sclerosis by rebooting the immune system with stem cells. Within a week of that news, a similar procedure was shown to successfully treat AIDS.
The stem cells used in the AIDS therapy came from a donor with a rare genetic resistance to the disease. It worked so well, in fact, that the patient no longer takes AIDS drugs. The donor stem cell transplant also cured his leukemia. This is reality, not science fiction.
The success of the AIDS SC therapy has huge implications. The most important is that it demonstrates the potential of genetically engineered stem cells to give individuals new immunities and biological capabilities.
This is critical because humans are born with a broad range of genetic strengths and vulnerabilities. Now, we're seeing that those strengths can be transferred via stem cells. These donor cells will give your body the ability to knock out diseases you would not otherwise have the ability to fight. Eventually, designer stem cells will be used not only to cure, but to enhance our physical states. Immunities to cancers, Alzheimer's and other diseases will be routinely delivered via GE stem cells as a new form of inoculation.
The company I'm recommending this month, in fact, is on the cutting edge of the convergence between genetic engineering and stem cell technologies. Fortunately for early investors, it has been largely ignored by the financial media. The Economist article I referred to above, however, indicates that this is about to change.
This company controls an entire branch of stem cell science and patents. Moreover, it is far closer to market than many of the "big" SC companies that are getting so much old media attention.
The SC Company to Look for in the Short-Run
An odd thing about stem cell science is that we have a pretty good idea about many of the long-run applications. For example, we know that personalized induced pluripotent stem (iPS) therapies will be used for general regenerative therapies. You will provide a blood or tissue sample to a SC company. Those cells will be robotically converted into iPS cells. Then, those cells will be programmed to repair specific organs or tissues. They will rejuvenate everything from retinal nerves to hearts, cartilage and kidneys. Because the cells will be your own, they will cause none of the immune problems associated with donor cells.
This technology, however, is a few years away even for wealthy first-world patients. For billions of others, it could well be more than a decade. This means that most early profits will come from donor stem cell therapies. And as is the case with transplants, this raises the issue of immune reactions.
Fortunately, a great deal is known about immunosuppression. This is due to a long history of organ, graft and marrow transplants. A number of companies are developing stem cell therapies now that rely on immunosuppression technologies.
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