Tag Archives: gild

Gilead Sciences Stock Rises As Analysts Still Like HCV Franchise

Big biotech Gilead Sciences ( GILD ) hit a two-month high Monday after two analysts delivered bullish outlooks for the company. On Sunday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee lifted his Q1 EPS estimates due to a stock buyback and noted several recent pieces of “incremental” good news. For one, he cited late Friday the successful patent suit brought by Merck ( MRK ) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals ( IONS ), which had resulted in a somewhat lower damages award ($200 million) than Wall Street had expected. He also noted that weekly prescription data from IMS Health ( IMS ) suggest Gilead’s hepatitis C drugs, Sovaldi and Harvoni, were holding up reasonably well in the face of competition from Merck’s Zepatier, which launched in late January. This point was made more emphatically Monday in a research note by Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges, who called Merck a “pretender to the HCV (hepatitis C  virus) throne.” Porges noted that a survey of top payer plans backed this up. “Seven weeks after the launch of Zepatier, Sovaldi and Harvoni retain a relatively favorable position in 65% of the top 20 largest commercial plans and 70% of the top 10 largest government plans relative to AbbVie ’s ( ABBV ) Viekira Pak (20%, 30%, respectively) and Zepatier (0%, 10%),” Porges wrote. “Further, in the top 20 Medicare plans, while Harvoni is covered by 100% of plans, 85% of plans do not cover Viekira Pak, and none cover Zepatier.” Porges affirmed his outperform rating on Gilead stock, with a price target of 127. In midday trading on the stock market today , Gilead stock was up more than 2%, near 93, and earlier rose above 94. The stock has climbed about 14% from the 20-month low it hit on Feb. 2, but still has a weak IBD Relative Strength Rating of 29, meaning the stock’s performed in the lowest 29% of all stocks the past 12 months, with an emphasis on the most recent six months. Merck stock was down a fraction midday Monday.

Gilead Sciences Gets Price-Target Cut After Cancer Trials Stopped

Big biotech Gilead Sciences ( GILD ) got a price-target cut from investment bank Leerink on Wednesday, after the company cancelled clinical trials on its cancer drug Zydelig due to safety problems. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said last Friday that it was looking into reports of serious adverse events, including deaths, in Gilead’s trials of Zydelig in various forms of blood cancer. Later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that it was doing the same, and on Monday it issued a notice saying that Gilead had agreed to suspend six trials in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) and indolent non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs). Zydelig, first launched in July 2014, is now approved for relapsed CLL and as a third-line treatment for B-cell NHL and SLL. “The FDA is reviewing the findings of the clinical trials and will communicate new information as necessary,” the agency said in its statement. Gilead also said that it’s suspending trials of Zydelig as a front-line treatment for any cancer. On Wednesday, Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges slashed his peak annual sales estimate on the drug from $935 million to $174 million in 2020, which he estimates will shave 1% to 3% off EPS in the 2017-2020 period. He therefore cut his price target to 127 from 130 while maintaining an outperform rating on Gilead stock. “Though accretive to revenue, oncology accounts for a small portion of Gilead’s total revenue, 93% of which consists of antivirals,” Porges wrote. “We have never been convinced that oncology would become a major franchise for the company, and given these recent events, maintain this outlook.” Gilead stock was up 1% in early trading on the stock market today , near 90, but it’s down more than 10% this year and sports a lowest-possible IBD Accumulation/Distribution Rating of E.

Intercept Pharma Spikes On Report That It’s Exploring A Sale

Shares of biotech Intercept Pharmaceuticals ( ICPT ) spiked 30% in early-afternoon trading Friday on a report that the company is exploring a sale. Reuters cited anonymous sources in its report that Intercept has been working with investment bankers this week after it received interest from other companies. Reuters did not name any of the suitors, but Intercept has been a perpetual source of buyout speculation. Gilead Sciences ( GILD ) is a popular choice of buyer due to its overlapping work in liver diseases, and so are big pharmas working in that space such as Bristol-Myers Squibb ( BMY ), Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) and Merck ( MRK ). Intercept shares were up about 31% on the stock market today , near 123. An imminent deal would be oddly timed, however, given that Intercept’s lead drug is tied up in a long and uncertain FDA review. Initially the agency set a deadline of Feb. 29 to decide whether to approve Intercept’s obeticholic acid (OCA) for primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). In December, however, the FDA pushed the deadline out to May 29 to provide time for an advisory committee, or adcom, to review and vote on the application on April 7. The FDA generally calls such committees when it has unresolved issues with the data. Intercept is also studying OCA for the potentially much bigger market in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), but safety issues have arisen in its trials. “We doubt that Intercept could or would be acquired before at least an adcom panel to discuss the risk/benefit of the drug for PBC approval, and any indications of interest by an acquirer would be more to just do due diligence and explore scenarios and valuations first,” wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee in a research note. Yee added that an acquirer would likely have to pay up to $5 billion for Intercept but wouldn’t be able to make money off the deal for years since the drug is expected to ramp slowly. This uncertainty over the last few months has helped tamp down Intercept’s stock even more than other biotechs’, as it’s trading at only about a third of its May high of 314.88. Image provided by Shutterstock .