Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MNTA)

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UBS Defends Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MNTA); Negative News Largely In Stock

UBS maintains a 'Buy' on Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MNTA) price target of $15.00 (from $18.00).

Analyst, Ami Fadia, noted that NY courts ruled that Mylan (NYSE: MYL)/Natco's and Momenta/Sandoz's New Drug Application (for generic Copaxone) infringed on Teva (Nasdaq: TEVA), the patent holder for Copaxone. The ruling prevents generics from launching an OB-listed drug until patent expiration on May 24, 2014. Teva thinks the process may delay generics further (until Sept 2015)

Fadia had expected a TEVA victory, but though Momenta would be able to submit generic in 2014. Because there is a possible delay until Sept 2015, Fadia lowers estimates on MNTA for 2012 from (1.10) to (1.11) and FY13 from (1.18) to (1.22).

She concluded by saying, "Further, we believe Teva will switch ~35% of the mkt to the new version before generics enter. Accordingly, we are lowering our peak sales estimate for generic Copaxone from ~$400M to $300M in 2017 for Momenta. This resulted in an EPS impact of -$1.27 in 2.014E, -$1.72 in 2015E and -$0.54 in 2016E."

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