Biotech Values

[mcbio]

Buying shares of a reputable foreign company on the US pink sheets is relatively easy and painless; I did this with NVS before it listed on the NYSE in 2000.

To ensure that you don’t overpay for Medivir, buy after the market closes in Stockholm; take the closing price in Stockholm*, convert from Swedish kronor to US dollars, and submit a limit order to buy close to that price.

Thanks very much. Very helpful.

Medivir’s market cap at Wednesday’s close in Stockholm was 4.24M Swedish kronor = $652M. This does seem low, but I haven’t examined the balance sheet to what the rest of the company’s capitalization looks like.

In addition to the balance sheet, the other big thing that I'd like more clarity on is the royalty rate Medivir will be due on potential sales of TMC435. I don't recall this ever being discussed on here before. Given that the TMC435 deal was struck in 2004 when the drug was only at the pre-clinical stage and Medivir only got $10M up-front, I can't imagine the royalty is that great. Hopefully they are at least due low to mid-double digit royalties, though. Do you have any idea on the exact rate they may be due? I did read that Medivir has exclusive rights to market TMC435 in Nordic countries but I assume that is a very small portion of the HCV market and probably not exactly a huge opportunity.

Need to do some more DD but Medivir strikes me at first blush as a much better proposition than ACHN now that I've taken a closer look at the valuation.