Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc (ENTA)

[willyw]

why would ENTA drop a super early stage (covid) program...?

IDK. It seems to me that they could have left it or removed it and it ultimately means little. It could be a signal that it failed closer scrutiny without calling attention to it, It could mean it's a signal that they are not spending blindly and are prudently controlling their burn rate. IF they no longer have it on a slide it's not to say they couldn't keep working on that prospect and others. Ultimately I think they are just directing attention away from this for now.
It troubled me a little that the presentation the 9th of Sept was primarily RSV. But they can't talk about any potential partnerships. IF there's nothing concrete from regulators they are best not talking about that either.
One thing I DO like about Enanta and Luly is that they seem to not hype their products or over promise as some other companies do
My guess is that money is tight and the shortest path to raising share price is in completing RSV data.

Per the Pfizer link, I think that it underlines the thesis that new and better Covid drugs are needed- despite what some may think, and that there are pathways to future approvals.

Somewhat off topic- when I think of the value of a best in class Covid compound I would think that a compound that is somewhat more near approval (EDP-235 could start phase 3 if partnered) would be potential worth billions more than a preclinical, phase 1 or entering phase 2 compound. The efficacy has been proven and asset de-risked. There may be further labels to be investigated.
Even more off topic would be what would a patent settlement be worth to Pfizer? Well, that could also be worth billions.
And yet if Pfizer settled with Enanta- Enta could use the cash to further co-fund development of EDP-235 - not good for Pfizer.
So in a sense, wouldn't it make cash sense for Pfizer to try to acquire Enanta?

Even more off topic- 17% of my ENTA holdings are green since Sept 6.
I've either caught a falling knife or a dead cat on it's first bounce. : )