Durect Shares Up
Tuesday September 5, 10:36 am ET
Durect Shares Rise; Analyst Says Company Faces Less Competition for Drug After Settlement
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Durect Corp. rose Tuesday morning, as a Merriman Curhan Ford analyst noted that a settlement among rival drug makers could reduce competition for the pharmaceutical company's painkiller Remoxy.
Last week, Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to shelve their generic spinoff of Purdue's OxyContin painkiller, as part of a patent-infringement settlement. In return Purdue agreed not to seek patent-infringement damages.
With the generic painkiller off the market at the end of 2006, Merriman's E. Russell McAllister wrote in a client note that Durect now faces less low-priced competition for Remoxy. He upgraded his rating on Durect's stock to "Buy" from "Neutral."
Using Durect's technology, the painkiller is being developed in part by Pain Therapeutics Inc. and King Pharmaceuticals Inc. Last month, the two companies said Remoxy is in late-stage clinical trials.
"These settlements are a clear positive for Durect," McAllister said. "They substantially reduce potential competition for Remoxy."
McAllister said Remoxy is not bioequivalent to OxyContin and shouldn't face patent-infringement lawsuits, even though Remoxy uses the same chemical used in OxyContin.
"Although we continue to have some latent concerns about Durect, particularly the slow pace of development of Durect's other products, we nevertheless believe these settlements remove a significant overhang," McAllister wrote. |
