Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT)

[biotechhead]

ICPT is the only player on the field. Gilead acquired Phenex's FXR agonist biotech last year, which is essentially the same thing, showing that it is committed to the science that Intercept has succeeded in getting to market ahead of everyone else. This puts ICPT in a strong position to attract Gilead's competitors or conceivably to be removed from the competition by Gilead itself, despite any disgruntled criticism Gilead or others might level in an attempt to cast doubt on its value. Useful links from 2015 before this race was won by ICPT: https://lifescivc.com/2015/05/from-crawl-to-sprint-the-race-to-treat-nash/ and http://www.gilead.com/news/press-releases/2015/1/gilead-sciences-announces-acquisition-of-phenex-pharmaceuticals-development-program-for-nonalcoholic-steatohepatitis-nash-and-other-liver-diseases Liver disease kills and patients and their doctors are highly motivated. Now that ICPT's OCA can be prescribed, medications in standard usage that mitigate the side effects will be prescribed alongside it. ICPT is also well placed to take advantage of any complementary biotech that makes it to market that can help form the kind of combination treatment that Gilead is so fond of. As an overview, I would speculate that the demand - both on and off-label - for OCA is currently underestimated as a value driver by some stock analysts. Meanwhile, Gilead is trailing behind in ICPT's dust with its own FXR agonist, which began its Phase I Trial only three months ago. Please feel free to ask if you would like any of the science explaining in more easily understandable terms.