David,
FTC investigations are by their nature open-ended and slow. My guess is the FTC jumped into this one at the instigation of Barr Labs, who want to bring out a generic Prozac without excessive competition from the ICE Prozac.
Given that the FTC blessed the Claritin deal, it is hard to see how they could complain about the Prozac deal. True, Prozac is perhaps higher profile, but Claritin has (as I recall) a bigger market share than Prozac. So I'm optimistic that there will be a favorable resolution.
As to the SEPR stock price, people have to remember that SEPR is still very much a story stock, and as such is vulnerable to anything that clouds the story. We've had the FTC investigation, the nora/J&J fallout, no resolution yet to the Allegra patent dispute, the slowish start to Xopenex, plus some active short sellers spreading tales of woe.
For the brave, who believe the long-term story is intact, I feel these are attractive prices. For the not-so-brave, it might be more prudent to wait until we get some good news or until some of these outstanding issues are resolved.
Peter |
