Biotech Values

[steveporsche]

IDIX - Dew any clue why up 20% today? I know there is a CC on Monday, but today was somewhat unusual.

BTW, I came across this month old article on Yahoo (below), in case you have not seen already. After reading your posts on the co., nothing new here, but it is nice to see some institutional interest.

Idenix Pharmaceuticals gets positive 'Overweight' rating by Thomas Weisel analyst
On Friday June 12, 2009, 12:43 pm EDT

Companies:Idenix pharmaceuticals inc.Intermune inc.Novartis ag
NEW YORK (AP) -- Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. received a positive rating from a Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Friday, based on the company's hepatitis C treatment program.

Thomas Weisel analyst Stephen Willey gave the stock an "Overweight" rating and expects shares to reach $8 over the next 12 months as it pushes ahead with development of IDX184 for hepatitis C. He said a recent deal for the HIV treatment candidate IDX899 with GlaxoSmithKline, that is worth about $450 million, will give the company some financial flexibility in the coming years.

Both the hepatitis C and HIV drug candidates are part of the same class of new drugs called nucleoside inhibitors, or NI's, which have the potential to become potent antivirals with fewer toxic side effects, Willey said.

"Idenix is the only small cap (company) with access to clinical and preclinical pipeline candidates from all three primary antiviral classes in hepatitis C," he said, in a note to investors. "This makes the company a potential target for one of the many larger players looking to establish a control premium within the hepatitis C space through the consolidation of antiviral assets."

Hepatitis C is caused by a blood-borne virus that can lead to liver scarring or liver cancer. Current treatments on the market include combinations of the drugs peginterferon and ribavirin, but less than half on it are cured. There is currently a large push by several companies to develop treatments that directly target the virus, making the outlook for the hepatitis C market very competitive.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Schering-Plough Corp. and InterMune Inc. are all developing Hepatitis C treatments.

Willey said the underlying technology in IDX184 has become the cornerstone of combination therapies for HIV because of a high barrier to genetic resistance. That propensity for viral resistance will likely drive a push to more combination treatments for hepatitis C, benefiting Idenix.

"This high resistance barrier and broad genotypic coverage will translate into a similar outcome for this class of drugs in hepatitis C," he said.

Idenix currently only has one marketed product, the hepatitis B drug Tyzeka, sold overseas as Sebivo. That drug was licensed to Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG, and Idenix receives royalty payments on sales.

Shares of Idenix rose 4 cents to $3.41 in afternoon trading.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Thomas-Weisel-analyst-rates-apf-947848572.html?x=0&.v=2