Pharmaceuticals and life sciences as a sector is where most of the money from hedge funds seems to be flowing in. However, it’s the sector-specific funds that are making the big purchases. Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management and James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management recently upped their stakes in Bio Blast Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:ORPN) and Alimera Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ALIM) respectively. Visium Asset Management’s recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)shows that it increased its stake in Bio Blast Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:ORPN) to 777,000 shares from over 627,000 shares it previously owned. With this purchase, Visium Asset Management now owns 5.5% of all common stock of the company as a passive investor. Filing by Deerfield Management with the SEC show that it increased its stake in Alimera Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ALIM) to around 2.4 million shares or 5.58% of all common stock of the company from the over 1.3 million shares it held earlier. Deerfield Management is also a passive investor in Alimera Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ALIM).
Deerfield Management is life sciences-focused hedge fund that is managed by James E. Flynn since 2000. It currently has an equity portfolio of around $2.5 billion. Deerfield initiated a stake in Alimera Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ALIM) during first quarter of this year. The fund recently decreased its stake in Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DRNA) by 117,000 shares to 2.31 million shares and upped its exposure to Endologix, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELGX) to 4.48 million shares from the 1.48 million shares it held earlier.
Other prominent investors who own Alimera Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ALIM) include William Leland Edwards’s Palo Alto Investors and Thomas Ellis and Todd Hammer’s North Run Capital. As of June 30, 2014, Palo Alto Investors owns over 3.6 million shares and North Run Capital owns 1.95 million shares. Alimera Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ALIM)’s stock is up by a whopping 97% since last year.
Jacob Gottlieb founded Visium Asset Management in 2005. Apart from receiving a CFA charter from AIMR in 2001, Jacob Gottlieb also holds a medical doctorate (MD) degree from New York University Medical School. Visium Asset Management uses macro and quantitative strategies for investing. Apart from Bio Blast Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:ORPN), the fund is also bullish on Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) and Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD), in which it increased its stake by 715% to over 2.4 million shares and by 51% to over 8.54 million shares respectively during the second quarter. Bio Blast Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:ORPN) got listed on NASDAQ in late July this year. Its shares are down by over 26% since the listing and around 29% since last month.
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