Thursday, May 2, 2019
Amedisys falls 5% to $112.04 after Citron puts $50 target on shares
Andrew Left’s Citron Research put a $50 price target on shares of Amedisys (AMED) in a new report posted on its website. The stock in midday trading is down 6%, or $6.49, to $113.40. Wall Street has ignored the structural change that is occurring in the company’s business model, Citron writes. Between patient-driven groupings model, Medicare Advantage and lower hospice reimbursements, “EVERYTHING has changed,” says the firm best known for short selling the names it covers. The firm believes that “hospice fraud has been widespread for years” at the company. Citron calls Amedisys the “most vulnerable name in healthcare.”
Health Insurance Innovations stock looks ‘broken,’ says Raymond James
Raymond James analyst C. Gregory Peters keeps an Outperform rating on Health Insurance Innovations shares, but said he fears the stock “appears to be broken” and could see additional weakness as broker-dealers have to short more shares to keep their books neutral if the stock continues to slide. While he does not believe that legislation introduced in the House of Representatives to prevent the enforcement of a recent regulation aimed at increasing the number of people with short-term limited duration insurance will see action in the Senate, Peters acknowledges the overhang that the bill has been on Health Insurance Innovations shares.
Agios Pharmaceuticals announces FDA approval of sNDA for TIBSOVO
Agios Pharmaceuticals announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a supplemental New Drug Application to update the U.S. Prescribing Information for TIBSOVO, an isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 inhibitor, to include adult patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia with a susceptible IDH1 mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test who are greater than or equal to 75 years old or who have comorbidities that preclude use of intensive induction chemotherapy. The sNDA was granted Priority Review and accepted under the FDA’s Real-Time Oncology Review pilot program, which aims to make the review of oncology drugs more efficient by allowing the FDA access to clinical trial data before the information is formally submitted to the agency. TIBS7OVO received initial FDA approval in July 2018 for adult patients with relapsed or refractory AML and an IDH1 mutation.
Biogen higher after tofersen study shows potential for ALS treatment
On Wednesday night, Biogen (BIIB) announced interim results of a phase 1/2 study of tofersen, an antisense oligonucleotide, or ASO, being studied for the potential treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, in adults with a confirmed superoxide dismutase 1 or SOD1, mutation. The data will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. “The interim results of this study, which achieved proof-of-biology and proof-of-concept, support the initiation of a phase 3 clinical trial to confirm the efficacy and safety of tofersen in SOD1-ALS patients and further demonstrate the potential of ASOs to target the genetic driver of disease,” said Michael Ehlers, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president, research and development at Biogen. “We are committed to bringing a potential breakthrough therapy to patients with ALS and we are expediting our efforts with the aim of addressing this urgent unmet need.” PROGRESSIVE DISEASE: ALS, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. People with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death. The average life span after diagnosis is two to five years. Approximately 10% of all ALS cases are genetic and about a fifth of those are caused by SOD1 gene mutations, says the American Academy of Neurology or AAN.”The treatment that we researched in this study, an antisense oligonucleotide called tofersen or BIIB067, works by targeting and reducing protein created by the mutated gene,” said study author Timothy M. Miller, MD, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “That mutated protein is toxic and leads to ALS by damaging the nerve cells that control movement. Our research aimed to decrease the production of that protein.” OWNING BIOGEN MAKES SENSE: According to Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Raymond, owning Biogen shares at these levels “makes a lot of sense.” With valuation and sentiment near all-time lows, the company needs only a few things to go right in order for the stock to start working again, says the analyst. He believes a number of near term catalysts, namely a settlement with Mylan (MYL) over Tecfidera and positive pipeline updates, could “meaningfully change the narrative” on Biogen shares. Raymond kept an Overweight rating on the name with a $280 price target in a note to investors out earlier on Thursday. According to BioSpace, Sanofi (SNY) makes a drug to treat ALS by the name of Rilutek. It was the first drug approved by the FDA to treat ALS, but “it’s no cure for ALS,” though it can slow progression of the disease.
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