The Market On Tuesday

Bank of America and Citigroup are in tough shape. The banks are two likely candidates for a government takeover, restructuring, and resale to a private entity.

Futures are down, the bear is out of hibernation.

Reading through the futures article, we find a small note about a prostate cancer vaccine. Wow. That is huge. The company is Dendreon.

Dendreon on the NYSE

Reuters: Index futures point to sharply lower Wall St open

Dendreon's prostate cancer vaccine will be presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting in Chicago. Shares of the biotechnology company tripled earlier this month when it reported its Provenge vaccine improved survival in the Phase III trial.

Business Week: Dendreon Prostate Vaccine Boosts Survival

Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) jolted the cancer community, and the stock market, on Apr. 14 with an announcement that a medical trial has shown that its experimental Provenge vaccine for prostate cancer can keep men alive longer than standard treatments. "The results were unambiguous," Dendreon CEO Mitchell Gold told BusinessWeek. The news raised the possibility that Provenge might become the first cancer vaccine approved for use in the U.S.

If approved, analysts predict that Provenge could have initial annual sales of $200 million a year, and that sales could eventually exceed $1 billion. The drug, which is administered only once, is also likely to be costly, although the company has yet to release any pricing details.

Dendreon could also wind up being the first anticancer vaccine to win FDA approval. Provenge is one of a number of so-called immunotherapies in development that try to stimulate the body's immune system to attack cancer cells and prevent the disease from recurring.