Replies to post #58624 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

>ACHN – Anyone else here have any opinion on this company and their recent HIV P2 results<

The stock was very cheap because ACHN’s initial foray in the HCV market failed last April (#msg-18754183).

ACHN’s HIV candidate is an NRTI. Although it may be a credible drug candidate from a scientific standpoint, GILD’s Truvada has such a strong vise on the NRTI segment of the HIV market that I don’t see developing a new NRTI as an especially enterprising plan for a small biotech company.

I much prefer IDIX’s plan to go head to head with Sustiva in the NNRTI segment of the HIV market, which is more open to newcomers than the NRTI segment.

[DewDiligence]

ACHN will not spend any more of its own money on its HIV NRTI drug, elvucitabine, according to the CEO’s comments on the recent Needham webcast. This is probably a good decision—the drug’s commercial prospects are poor for the reasons mentioned in #msg-26540327.