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Best Stocks for 2008: Cancer drugs and controversy at Celgene (CELG)

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"Our favorite more conservative stock for 2008 is Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG)," says biotech expert John McCamant, editor of The Medical Technology Stock Letter.

"The company is focused on the development of new and improved treatments for various cancers and other severe, immune, inflammatory conditions, and is well on its way to becoming a major global biopharmaceutical entity.

"Over the years, we have watched management consistently deliver on its promises to shareholders and create additional value. The most notable cancer drugs at CELG are Thalidomide and Revlimid (a second-generation version of Thalidomide).

"These are oral therapies that have become the cornerstone in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), and which are in clinical development for many other blood-borne cancers, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and CLL.

"These products are on track to produce over $1.3 billion in sales in 2007, and there is still plenty of room for sales growth beyond that.

"Over the last few months, however, CELG's stock has dropped precipitously, in part due to the announcement that it is acquiring outright fellow biotech company Pharmion, its European partner for Revlimid, as well as the release of recent data on a competing drug in the myeloma space.

"There have been some who are arguing that CELG overpaid for Pharmion, but we could not disagree more with this notion. Rather, we view this as a shrewd maneuver.

"We believe that Revlimid is the superior drug for the MM space, and that it should be the biggest winner in the front-line MM treatment space. (Both drugs are approved for MM patients who have failed previous therapy; approval is currently being sought for front-line treatment.)

"At the end of the day, all of this controversy has resulted in what we view as an irrationally excessive pullback in CELG's stock, providing us with an excellent opportunity to invest in one of the most promising larger-cap stocks in the biotech space in the year to come. CELG is a buy under $54 with a target of $80."

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Last updated: May 16, 2008: 10:56 PM

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