VRUS
You are right that there are not many near-term value drivers for VRUS.
However, I am not so concerned about VRUS in the short term. Their pipeline is impressive; both clevudine and racivir remain unpartnered, and the company is cheap.
Plus, as noted by Dew, clevudine is a very similar compound, structurally, to Tyzeka/Sebivo from NVS/IDIX, which makes me highly confident that it will succeed in clinical trials. So it does fit my investment profile in that there's less efficacy risk for clevudine because it's a tried and true class of compounds (although again, that fluorine...). Similarly, one can make a rational case that both racivir and R7128 are relatively low-risk, from an efficacy standpoint.
So you've got three drugs, two unpartnered, that have reasonably low efficacy risk. None will be blockbusters-unless R7128 shows spectacular efficacy for Hep C--but all can achieve reasonable market share. Plus we've got a reasonable spread from phase 1 to phase 3.
Perhaps most importantly, though, is that it takes forever for me to accumulate low-volume stocks. I've just started accumulating VRUS, and unless volume picks up so that I can pick up the pace at some point it will take me well over a year to buy enough to make a difference in my portfolio. By that time things will be happening.
AI
