Biotech Values

[mcbio]

VSAR vs. ASND

Is there any obvious reason as to why ASND now trades at a sharply higher valuation than VSAR ($900M mkt cap vs. $600M)? Couple of comments/questions as I don't know growth hormone space well and only recently came across these names:

1. In general, I think these long-acting growth hormone drugs are more about convenience than any kind of advance in efficacy or safety versus the cheap daily injections. I don't know if that perhaps raises questions about pricing and reimbursement for them.

2. According to VSAR, they are now about a year ahead of ASND along with I believe PFE and NVO in bringing a long-acting growth hormone for growth hormone deficiency to market. Current treatment is a daily injection and VSAR drug, if successful in ongoing P3 trial for pediatric GHD that reads out around Sept. this year, would only require twice-monthly dosing. ASND version which, again, is a year or so behind, would require weekly injections. I get that both are meaningful improvements but, all things being equal, I would assume a child would prefer only two injections per month versus four.

3. Is there some issue with VSAR data to date vs. ASND data which can explain this discrepancy? I do see that VSAR drug was on a hold before (#msg-113418688 ) and CEO was replaced at same time so perhaps this could be part of it but hold was lifted two months later.

4. I do see that ASND does have a much broader pipe than VSAR, including early deals with SNY and Genentech, so perhaps this is part of the reason. See: http://ascendispharma.com/product-pipeline/overview/ vs. http://www.versartis.com/pipeline/ . Still, unless there is some obvious issue in data to date, VSAR GHD drug on the surface looks like it could be better and this is the lead asset for both companies.