Replies to post #92153 on Biotech Values

[turtlepower]

ACHN - I looked at the slides for the presentation outlining their goals for the rest of the year and I don't see any clinical trials for compounds other than 1625. I'm curious what they will spend their money on (other than 1625) assuming they partner and get a decent upfront payment. Or are those objectives based on no partnerships?

Any thoughts on ACHN valuation compared to IDIX? Based on todays price the EV for ACHN is about 75 M while IDIX is around 150 M. IDIX is slightly further along in its HCV pipeline though.

Regarding partnership, i was surprised to see (thanks to Dew's list of hcv partnerships) that zgen had landed a partnership with a pretty significant upfront payment considering the development stage of its compound, as well as other similar partnerships. I was already aware of ITMN's deal and assumed ACHN would receive a deal that would not be as good as ITMN's considering that there is a lot of competition since the ITMN deal was struck, but after seeing the ZGEN deal I'm not sure.

[dewophile]

Under the "technical definition," ACH-2684 is protease or protease-like, but it is very different structurally and in terms of its activity compared to other PIs.

hmm - what could this novel structure possibly be? already both linear (telaprevir) and macrocyclic proteases (itmn, idix) are in the clinic..and in terms of activity you now have a protease that has pan-genotypic activity (idix-320) - so what left is there in terms of differentiated activity for a protease?

[mcbio]

ACHN @ Wall Street Analyst Forum (3/12/10)

1. The president confirmed my inference in #msg-47669251 at the 39:30 mark of the presentation when he indicated that ACHN will likely sign a partnership for ACH-1625 before the Phase 2 trial commences in 3Q2010. (Whether or not such a partnership will indeed be a lucrative one and enough to propel the stock higher is of course another matter.) Again, a partnership will only be signed if it's in the best interest of shareholders as ACHN has the funds to do the Phase 2 trial on its own.

2. ACHN is still in discussions with more than a half dozen major players to partner ACH-1625. There are 3 or 4 favorite partners. ACHN believes they are about at the first term sheet stage now and in a much better position since raising cash.

3. It was mentioned around the 12:40 mark of the presentation that ACHN apparently received an independent review from Dr. Jules Dienstag on Monday (3/8/10) who called ACH-1625 the "best and most pristine looking of the proteases in development today." The nature or context of this review was not disclosed.

4. ACHN may do a few additional cohorts behind the two planned additional Phase 1b cohorts testing ACH-1625 in a lower BID dose and higher QD dose to further pinpoint the design of the Phase 2 trial.

5. ACHN expects the Phase 2 trial to test 1625 out to 28 days.

6. Since announcing ACH-2684, ACHN has received a number of requests from major players asking if 2684 hits a particular HCV mutation and the answer is almost always "yes."