jueves, 3 de septiembre de 2020

Amarin loses legal fight over heart drug patent; shares sink - STAT

Amarin loses legal fight over heart drug patent; shares sink - STAT

The Readout

Damian Garde & Meghana Keshavan

Amarin might finally have hit the bottom

Amarin’s fortunes took a dive in March when a federal judge ruled that key patents covering its heart drug Vascepa were invalid. And the company’s appeal, argued at a hearing yesterday, doesn’t seem likely to succeed. But there’s an arguable silver lining: Amarin’s share price, which fell another 30% after that hearing, probably can’t get much worse.

As Cowen analyst Ken Cacciatore pointed out in a note to investors, Vascepa still has patent protection in Europe, where its peak sales could reach about $1.5 billion a year. Assuming Amarin has no chance of winning its U.S. appeal, the company would retain a sizable business opportunity overseas, one that might not be reflected in its roughly $2 billion market cap.

That might not be terribly comforting to investors who bought into Amarin when it traded north of $20 a share, but according to Cacciatore, it suggests things can’t get much worse for the oft-debated company.

No hay comentarios: