Biotech Values

[tinkershaw]

Looks like TEVA is trying to replace copaxone. Another safe but only modestly effective drug. And given that Teva released none of the top line results, that is probably what it is as well. Still a few years away from approval. But with this profile it would cannabilize the copaxone market, as that is what the copaxone market is. I think Teva would only do this if MNTA was successful in its copaxone program. TEVA is always thinking ahead however. I am sure they will find a way to try to make it accretive, but this would appear to be another way for TEVA to recover from a generic copaxone. Which will get to market first, generic copaxone or laquinimod? I'd wager generic copaxone by a few years, but it is still up in the air.

"The safety profile of the product is good and there were no alarming signals that worry us," Ben-Zion Weiner, Teva's chief research and development officer, told Reuters.

Deutsche Bank analysts said in a client note: "Given its putative profile as a potentially very safe but modestly effective drug, we see it as fitting a niche in patients with early-stage or less aggressive disease."

Tinker