http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aaDcdZY_hvg4&refer=us
- ViroPharma Inc. lost more than half its value in Nasdaq trading after experimental drug maribavir failed in tests on patients receiving bone-marrow transplants.
The Exton, Pennsylvania, company fell by $6.47, or 53 percent, $5.74 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. That’s the biggest drop since March 2002.
The advanced maribavir trials found no significant reduction in cytomegalovirus, part of a group that includes chicken pox and genital herpes, in patients six months after getting their marrow transplant. The virus can be deadly in people with HIV, cancer, transplanted organs or others whose immune systems are weakened.
“We are extremely disappointed by the outcome of this pivotal study,” Vincent J. Milano, ViroPharma’s chief executive officer, said in the statement. “We just received these data and there are far more questions than answers. We still have a significant amount of work to do to fully understand this outcome and its impact on the overall program.”
Alex To, an analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder Inc. in New York, dropped the 12-month target price for ViroPharma to $11 a share from $15, a figure given as recently as last week. Rachel L. McMinn at Cowen & Co. in San Francisco lowered ViroPharma to $6.06 from $11.86. Thomas Wei at Piper Jaffray & Co. in New York cut the price to $9 from $17.
ViroPharma’s two marketed products are Vancocin, a form of the antibiotic vancomycin, and Cinryze, to prevent attacks of swelling in patients with a rare condition called hereditary angioedema. Cinryze was acquired in October through the purchase of Lev Pharmaceuticals Inc. Vancocin may face generic competition this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kurt Heine in New York at kheine1@bloomberg.net.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment