10:27 VVUS
Vivus: Obesity experts bullish on both Qsymia and Belviq; thesis on VVUS remains unchanged - Cowen (28.21 -0.81)
Cowen says following the approval of Vivus's Qsymia on Tuesday night they hosted a consultant call with two well-known obesity specialists yesterday. The key takeaways from their call were tThere's real demand for this new group of obesity drugs, Qsymia and Belviq are seen as fairly similar, with Qsymia's stronger efficacy counterbalanced by its more "aggressive side effect profile". Firm says both agents are expected to be widely used, given that neither provides a complete solution for patients. Their thesis on VVUS remains unchanged: avoid the launch (and thus the shares), unless you have high conviction on big pharma stepping in for an acquisition. They continue to view the US launch of Qsymia by Vivus as a difficult one to pull off successfully, and eventually expect pressure on the stock at the current valuation of around $3 bln, which they believe assumes fairly hefty launch and sales expectations.
Focus Focus Focus Focus !!!!
