Replies to post #944 on Idenix Pharmaceuticals (IDIX)

[DewDiligence]

CC notes:

>thought it was a good CC
on par w/ the 27 Oct luncheon.<

I agree. All hands—especially Doug Mayers, the new CMO—were well prepared. On the whole, the answers were clear with less BS than in prior CC’s.

I especially liked that they gave us a clear metric on how much NM283 has to add to SoC in the drug-interaction study for NVS and IDIX to advance the program into phase-3: NM283+SoC must exceed SoC in the rate of PCR-negativity at 12 weeks by at least 10 percentage points (e.g. 60% vs 50%). This seems like a reasonable cutoff and it ought to be achievable if there is really no drug interaction between NM283 and ribavirin.

Moreover, JP did a good job of highlighting that IDIX is a drug-discovery company capable of generating a sequence of new HCV and HIV compounds to enter the clinic during the next few years. On this basis alone, IDIX is probably undervalued relative to such companies as EXEL whose claim to fame rests on an in-house drug-discovery engine.