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Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Medifast (MED) Raises Quarterly Dividend 56.3% to $0.75; 2.2% Yield


Medifast (NYSE: MED) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.75 per share, or $3 annualized. This is a 56.3% increase from the prior dividend of $0.48.
The dividend will be payable on February 7, 2019, to stockholders of record on December 21, 2018, with an ex-dividend date of December 20, 2018.
The annual yield on the dividend is 2.2 percent.
“This increase reflects our confidence in the business as well our commitment to deliver attractive total stockholder returns,” said Dan Chard, Chief Executive Officer of Medifast.

Intra-Cellular Therapies Favorable Switching Study in Schizophrenia


Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITCI), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) disorders, today announced favorable results from the second part of its open-label safety switching study (Study 303) assessing the effects of long-term administration of lumateperone in patients with stable symptoms of schizophrenia at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) held in Hollywood, FL, December 9-13, 2018.
Poster T184 entitled “Long-Term Safety for Lumateperone (ITI-007) in the Treatment of Schizophrenia” is being presented today from 5:30 pm — 7:30 pm during Poster Session II.
The poster presented data demonstrating that lumateperone, administered for up to one year, was generally well tolerated and exhibited statistically significant improvements from baseline on key safety measures of body weight, cardiometabolic and endocrine parameters, without motor side effects often associated with other antipsychotic medications.

Oppenheimer Starts Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ) at Outperform


Oppenheimer analyst Esther Rajavelu initiates coverage on Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: JAZZ) with a Outperform rating

Entera, Amgen in Pact on Inflammatory Disease and Other Serious Illnesses


Entera Bio Ltd. (Nasdaq: ENTX) announced today that it has entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Amgen in inflammatory disease and other serious illnesses. Entera will use its proprietary drug delivery platform to develop oral formulations for one preclinical large molecule program that Amgen has selected. Amgen also has an option to select up to two additional programs to include in the collaboration.
“We are excited to leverage our proprietary oral drug delivery platform in collaboration with Amgen, a leader in the development of large molecule and biologic treatments in inflammatory disease and numerous other disorders,” stated Dr. Phillip Schwartz, chief executive officer of Entera. “This collaboration is an important validation of our platform technology. Importantly, the first program included in this agreement is very different from the Oral PTH (1-34) in Entera’s pipeline, highlighting the broad applicability of our technology.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Entera will receive a modest initial technology access fee from Amgen and will be responsible for preclinical development at Amgen’s expense. Entera will be eligible to receive up to $270 million in aggregate payments, as well as tiered royalties up to mid-single digits, upon achievement of various clinical and commercial milestones if Amgen decides to move all of these programs forward. Amgen is responsible for clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization of any of the resulting programs.

Clovis Oncology (CLVS) Named Best 2019 Idea at Gabelli on Takeover Potential


Gabelli analyst Jing He named Clovis Oncology (NASDAQ: CLVS) a Best Idea for 2019, calling it a potential takeover target

Biogen to hold a conference call

Management provides an update on the Company's Multiple Sclerosis portfolio on a conference call to be held on December 12 at 8 am.
Webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/7r7jmfat
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2835679

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals initiated at B. Riley FBR


Madrigal Pharmaceuticals initiated with a Neutral at B. Riley FBR. B. Riley FBR analyst Mayank Mamtani started Madrigal Pharmaceuticals with a Neutral rating and $124 price target.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2835691