Healthcare Fund Consonance Capital’s Top Picks For Q3 Following Monster First Half

Consonance upped its stake in Insys Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INSY) by 9% as well during the second trimester, to 2.98 million shares valued at $107.19 million. Insys Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INSY)’s stock has appreciated by nearly 66% on a year-to-date basis. Although some investors have become weary of the investigations into doctors’ prescribing behavior, which could have a significant impact on Insys’ Subsys, an opoid pain medication, the sales of the drug have been soaring, registering a 40% increase in the second quarter on a year-over-year basis. Moreover, promising drugs are in the pipeline, including oral dronabinol, a variation of the marijuana drug Marinol that is used to treat nausea caused by chemotherapy, and anorexia caused by HIV. The market for the drug is $150 million in annual sales. Among the funds that we track Samuel Isaly‘s Orbimed Advisors is another prominent stockholder of Insys Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INSY), holding 1.24 million shares valued at $72.27 million.

After a staggering increase of 60% in its Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:EGRX) stake, Consonance holds some 1.18 million shares valued at $95.96 million of the specialty pharmaceutical company. The holding represents 9.61% of the fund’s portfolio value and amasses about 8.4% of the company’s outstanding shares. The stock price of Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:EGRX) has been growing faster than the universe (or thereabouts), being up by more than 370% year-to-date. The company managed to beat both the top and bottom line estimates in its recent financial results for the second quarter. Dimitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management holds about 7,055 shares of Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:EGRX) valued at $570,000 as of June 30.

Unsurprisingly, based on the staggering results of its top three picks, the returns of Consonance’s stock picks have been near the top of all the hedge funds we track at Insider Monkey. The fund’s picks in stocks with a market cap of $1 billion or greater delivered weighted average returns of 58.1% in the first half of 2015.

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