Lootman wrote:westmoreland wrote: Shares in Prothena, a biotech company backed by British investor Neil Woodford, plunged 70 percent on Monday after its main drug for treating a rare disease called AL amyloidosis failed in a crucial clinical trial.
As a result, Prothena is discontinuing development of the antibody-based medicine for the condition.
The news is a win for short sellers who have targeted the stock but a fresh setback for Woodford, one of Britain’s best-known fund managers.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-prot ... SKBN1HU1Y5patient capital trust down to 76p.
the short sellers proved to be correct.
Well, to be fair any small biotech investment is an outright speculation. You generally invest in a few and if one of them takes off it doesn't matter what the others do. Not many investors understand the science and so it is a form of gambling as much as anything.
Woodford's real genius is the name of the fund, thereby ensuring that he can always claim it will come good, eventually.
agree - and that is why i think woodford is out of his depth dabbling in this area.
it's incredibly patronising to bat off criticism by saying 'be patient' which is what woodford have said. that said, if you retain faith in wood ford's ability, as the trust's lost about 6% of NAV due to it's prothena investment, but the trust's share price is down over 10%, it may represent a buying opportunity.
