Amarin’s just checking in to say hey

Last we heard from Amarin, the company was forced to walk back an earlier statement about the FDA’s views on its heart drug, an about-face that sent its stock price down more than 20%.

It doesn’t appear that anything has changed since then, but yesterday Amarin issued a lengthy press release that “provided an update on the growing interest in information” about the company’s drug. Nothing resembling “news” would follow (and Amarin’s share price fell as much as 7% on the day), which led to more than a few peoplewondering: Why put this out into the world?

Amarin didn’t respond to that very question, but it’s worth noting that sentiment has been less than positive since the company’s aforementioned announcement that the FDA planned to convene an expert panel before deciding whether to expand the label of the company’s heart drug, called Vascepa. Amarin's share price is down about 36% from its one-year highs, and, perhaps most alarming, the number of shares loaned out to short sellers jumped 46% over two weeks.