Midday update - Would I lie to you ?

Well this morning it has been relatively quiet on the Ashcoff war front. Well ...by quiet I mean we haven't seen the normal fury of numerous reiterations by Ashcoff.

We've only had one little teeny weeny new report out in premarket that cited Aschoff's sell recommendation with this very ambiguous title that could be seen as an outright lie.

" Dendreon Cooperation Denied By The FDA"

What you talking about Ashcoff ...er Willace ?

Well last time I checked the FDA does not send out press releases concerning thier approval desicions about life extending cancer drugs to third party online publishing companies based in foreign countries. Especially not citing the opinion of a man who impersonated a doctor.

Today's article , and the other articles citing Ashoff yesterday , came from London based M2 media which releases these 'Dendreon Alerts' without ever mentioning who is publishing them.

I'm not saying Aschoff himself had anything to do with it , however it does reiterate his sell position on DNDN with a heading that could be viewed as an outright lie.


Even though the title of today's M2 'alert' was very misleading it was picked up by several brokerage houses as a DNDN stock alert.

People tend to trust new releases they see being issued by their brokerage houses that they choose on put thier money in.

Now if I was an average investor who wasn't up to par on the whole Dendreon case ; seeing this headline after logging in to my Scottrade account would make me drop my morning cup of coffee and run to hit the sell button!

The monumental FDA decision is to be made by May 15 , and I'm pretty sure the news of approval won't be coming from a third party publisher who doesn't even care to bother to release their identity.


Oh and I've received a couple of comments asking about the authenticity of the Wall Street Journal Article I posted yesterday

Here's an article on the WSJ page

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/wsj/access/147315131.html?dids=147315131:147315131&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Aug+8%2C+2002&author=By+Geeta+Anand+and+Randall+Smith&pub=Wall+Street+Journal&edition=Eastern+edition&startpage=A.1&type=91_1996&desc=Trial+Heat%3A++Biotech+Analysts+Strive+to+Peek++Inside+Clinical+Tests+of+Drugs++---++One+Impersonated+a+Patient%2C++One+a+Doctor

If you want to read the full article posted yesterday you can find it here on Pulitzer.org

http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2003/explanatory-reporting/works/wsj10.html

Signing off ,

Pineal Gland

Jonathan Aschoff from Brean Murray - He's not a doctor but he plays one on T.V.

Jonathan Aschoff heading to
work after FDA Panel Vote

I created this blog in order to document financial analyst Jonathan Aschoff' 's daily bashing of Provenge. Provenge is a drug to help prostate cancer patients in the late stage of disease. Dendreaon the company that makes Provenge is a bio tech company who recently received a positive recommendation from the FDA advisory committe that Provenge is safe and the the drug work to prolong survival.

Aschoff's firm had a sell or 'short' recomendation on this stock - target price of 1.50.

After the recommendation of the FDA approval pannel the stock flew up to 18 dollars. Aschoff has been on what seems to be a personal war path against Provenge ever since.

However before posting about Jonathan Aschoff's daily unrelenting 'reiterations' of his strong sell on DNDN , based on ( and this is a quote from him ) "lack of faith" - let's take a look at his history.

He was caught impersonating a doctor in order to get confidential information a few years ago. Why respected publications such as Barrons and Forbes continue associate themselves with this medical impersonator is baffling to say the least.

Here is an excerpt from the Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal acrticle that exposed the fradulant Aschoff. . . .

Friedman Billings analyst Jonathan Aschoff says he was just trying to get the real story when he impersonated a doctor in early March.

First he sent an e-mail to Dr. Cunningham, the oncologist involved with trials of Genta's experimental cancer drug, requesting a progress update. When it went unanswered, Mr. Aschoff says he telephoned on March 13, posing as a "Dr. Rosen" who had a leukemia patient interested in enrolling in the trial. The alias came from the movie "Fletch," where Chevy Chase pretends to be a doctor by that name, says Mr. Aschoff.

Dr. Cunningham, who works at a cancer center in Dallas, says he talked to the caller about the progress of the trials and the side effects seen. He says he mentioned some shrinking of the "lymphadenopathy," which means swollen lymph nodes. "What's that?" the caller asked.

Dr. Cunningham, his suspicions aroused, said he had to run but would call back with some even better information if he could just have "Dr. Rosen's" phone number. Racing to his computer and rummaging through old e-mails, he found that the number was the same as the one Mr. Aschoff had given in the e-mail request days earlier. "I was mad as hell," Dr. Cunningham says. He called Mr. Aschoff and "chewed him out." He says he told the analyst his behavior was "unethical in the extreme. I don't appreciate being pulled out of patient care to talk to someone who is lying to me."

Mr. Aschoff's defense: "Companies are saying to investors, 'Give me your money.' Are you going to give it to idiots who go off unchecked? I'm trying to bring the truth to investors." He acknowledges lying about being a doctor but says it was for the greater good of unearthing the truth.

Friedman Billings says it provides objective analysis of about 400 companies, demanding "the highest standard of ethical, professional behavior" of all employees.

Dr. Cunningham says a few weeks after the incident, his partner got a call from someone claiming to be a cancer patient interested in enrolling in the trial -- who confessed, when pressed, that he, too, was really an analyst. Dr. Cunningham warned other clinical investigators to beware of impersonators. His own incident "put a damper on my phone conversations with doctors I don't know," he says, adding: "It's bad for medicine, it's bad for science -- and it's bad for investors to take raw scientific data and throw it out there."

Genta investor Barbara Rubensohn, a New Yorker who says she has lost $8,000 on her shares, says, "I have no problem in a stock going down if a drug doesn't get approved. I have a real problem with somebody knowing that before I do."

Mr. Aschoff says he won't misrepresent himself in the future because "it's not appropriate for an NYSE-certified firm." He says he now calls clinical-trial doctors and nurses and tries to avoid saying who he is, "aborting the mission" if they press for his identity. Mr. Aschoff says he talked to others besides Dr. Cunningham who were involved with the Genta trial, and then orally advised some of his firm's 600 clients -- mostly institutional investors -- to short the stock.

That last thought of the article will bring us to my next blog post which I will post tomorrow morning.

Why tomorrow morning ? Well because every morning The Britney Spears of the financial analyst world will 'reiterate' ( whine about) his strong sell opinion to several more news outlets. Heck he might even shave his head while doing so. He's "reiterated " ( whined about it) on average three times a day for that past week.This will be entertaining to post ALL of his recent daily releases ( after a while it becomes very comical) and compare them all in once space.

I am almost expecting to wake up one morning and read a briefing.com issue . . .

Jonathan Aschcroff from Brean Murray has reiterated his sell on DNDN because the little voices inside his head told him too.

Signing off ,

Pineal Gland


http://www.happinessonline.org/InfectiousGreed/p6.html