Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc (ENTA)

[willyw]

The article was primarily about Pardes which doesn't look that promising to me -albeit possibly better than Pfizer. In a recent pitch they mentioned that they were going to have to run more phase 1 in the USA, and the once a day dosing without boosting seemed a bit more tentative.
Further, a follow on compound so close to their lead covid program seems to suggest a rushed entry.
The very last line in the article stated the Pardes compound *could* be approved at the very earliest by year end. That seemed like a stretch.

Shionogi seems far more promising. (I've seen no response data tho)

The covid landscape keeps changing. There always seems to be a new resistant variant to vaccines. The seriousness of covid to the unvaxxed remains, and may take a while before it visits both the unvaxxed and the less protected or immunocompromised/ aged/ groups plagued by other co-morbidities and diminishing vaccine protection. (4th shot boosters not very effective?)

On the other hand the focus on the main players in antivirals will become more clear - as will the treatment tail of covid. Will it become like the swine flu and depart, or will it become something more like a continual almost endemic- leaving far more slowly than we first expected?

Much like early HCV programs, the initial players success may be short lived. Pfizer's Paxlovid seems the main player. The Merck compound molnupiravir seems far less important.
The Pardes covid presentations might be better than their lead compound. : )