Vericel up 20+% on competitor's study result

I may be the only person following Vericel at this point. Long story short, small company with the best product on the market for knee cartilage repair of a certain type. Growing quickly and will soon be profitable. Please see pasts posts for more. There has always been this specter of competition but the company that was closest to having something ready for market just reported relatively disappointing phase 3 results. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3387845-histogenics-45-percent… . By the time anyone else gets to market they are going to have to prove they are better than VCEL’s MACI product instead of the current gold standard which is microfracture. By that time VCEL will have large distribution and sales network as well as deals with all the major insurance companies which all come together for a large moat. All the above is why VCEL is up 23% as I write this. I think they have plenty of room to grow ~10 times with their current products. If they can expand their indication they should be able to grow much more.

-ethan

p.s. VCEL is now large enough for mutual funds to pick up. Institutional ownership has skyrocketed over the year to 76% from the 30% range.

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Hello, Ethan -

I may be the only person following Vericel at this point.

Thanks to you, I established almost a full position shortly after you brought this company to the board’s attention. I liked what I read then and, yes, I enjoyed today’s pop as a prospective competitor suffered phase trial pains. Your assessment has been spot on!

Just wanted to say thanks!

great to hear putnid! FYI, i looked into their competitor HSGX a little bit. They only have enough cash to operate through the end of 2018 so they will need to raise more money. Their study results weren’t terrible but I wonder if they are good enough for them to get more money. Best case scenario they wouldn’t have a product on the market until late 2019 early 2020 if they survive. I was tempted to go bottom fishing on them but I don’t think it is worth the risk.

-e

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