MedImmune Up On Competitor Chiron's Problems In UK
13:57 Tuesday, October 05, 2004
By Frank Byrt Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
BOSTON (Dow Jones)--Shares of drug maker MedImmune Inc. (MEDI) were up 6.3% Tuesday on news that a competitor in the flu vaccine arena, Chiron Corp. (CHIR), has had to suspend sales of its Fluvirin vaccine for the coming influenza season after U.K. government health authorities suspended the company's manufacturing license.
Shares were up $1.53 to $25.90 on volume of 13.8 million shares, compared with an average daily volume of 1.9 million.
Shares of Chiron were down 16.2% Tuesday.
MedImmune makes FluMist, a nasal flu vaccine.
The third maker of flu vaccines in the U.S. is Aventis SA (AVE), shares of which were up 1%.
MedImmune did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Robert Parente, a drug industry analyst for Leerink Swann, said"MedImmune is benefiting from the perception that it could benefit this year (in greater sales) but there's not a big benefit in our minds."That's because it takes time to gear up to produce flu vaccine and MediImmune has said its plans call for it to make 1 million to 2 million doses this season, up from 500,000 last year."Clearly, they're not going to get a big benefit this year since they're only making 1 million or 2 million doses."Aventis, for example, has plans to make about 52 million doses of vaccine, he said.
Parente said the larger question for Chiron's competitors is whether Chiron's product will be off the market for the following flu season as well the upcoming one.
Pediatric infectious diseases, cancer and inflammatory diseases are the primary product focus for MedImmune, of Gaithersburg, Md.
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10-05-04 1357ET |
