Another BCRX bonanza....
Up 15% today. Too bad I didn't repurchase.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped Thursday after the Food and Drug Administration gave the drug developer the green light to begin testing of a new potential bird flu treatment.
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BioCryst shares were up $1.66, or 11 percent, to $16.87 on the in midday trading on the Nasdaq at more than double their average volume, and earlier changed hands as high as $17.93. The stock has risen from a 52-week low of $3.68 in April to hit a year high of $18.42 in October.
The company said the FDA gave it verbal approval to begin early stage clinical trials of intravenous peramivir, BioCryst's injectable flu medication designed for a wide variety of flu strains, including the H5N1 bird flu. Testing is expected to begin early in the first quarter.
The news comes a day after the New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing that two out of eight bird flu patients in Vietnam had developed a resistance to Roche Holding Ltd.'s popular flu drug Tamiflu and died. One of the patients who died had been given Tamiflu early enough to receive a full course of the treatment. The study said additional antivirus drugs needed to be developed to fight stains like bird flu.
In a research note, investment firm Wedbush Morgan reiterated its "Buy" rating and $24 price target for BioCryst.
"We note that the viral mutations that confer Tamiflu resistance to H5N1 would not appear to affect the potency of other antiviral drugs including peramivir," Wedbush analyst Vinny Jindal told investors.
BioCryst also announced Thursday it started an early-to-mid stage clinical trial of its lead drug Fodosine for the treatment of cancers of the immune system.
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