Monday January 20 3:32 PM EST
AIDS drug companies fall sharply
LOS ANGELES, Jan 20 (Reuter) - Shares of some companies that make or are developing AIDS
drugs saw their shares fall sharply Monday, in what analysts viewed mainly as a needed price
adjustment after recent heavy buying.
Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc , which has a protease inhibitor awaiting approval from the Food and
Drug Administration, fell 3-1/2 to 76-1/4. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc , which has a similar drug in
an earlier stage of development, was down 3-3/4 to 44-1/2. And BioChem Pharma Inc BCH.TO ,
maker of the widely-prescribed 3TC, was off three to 52-1/4.
"They're adjusting to the big push up last week," said Bear Stearns analyst David Molowa. "Last
week, there was a lot of hype and noise about these companies."
In addition, Smith Barney analyst Reijer Lenstra downgraded Agouron and BioChem to neutral
from outperform, citing pricing as the main factor.
Lenstra said that hype ahead of the Fourth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic
Infections caused some analysts last week to raise estimates and aggressively recommend buying.
The conference, one of the premiere forums for AIDS research, begins Wednesday in Washington.
Although, Agouron, Vertex and other companies are due to report new research at the conference,
Lenstra cautioned in a report that "expectations are already very high so that additional data may
provide more downside than upside surprise.
"We warn retail investors against buying these stocks based on press stories, because high
expectations are already in the stocks, in our opinion," he said in a research report. |
