hmpa,
I have to believe Peter's view on POZN is widely accepted, if not accurate. The deal would never have gotten out of the chute were their marketing prospects so obviously bad as you suggest. In any case, worth digging further. Prudential, which looks as though it might be trying to carve a niche for itself as the first born again call 'em as we really see 'em brokerage house, likes it:
>>NEW YORK, May 29 (Reuters) - Prudential Securities downgraded five development-stage biotech companies and upgraded another after reevaluating its ratings in accord with company-wide rating system changes.
The downgraded biotechs include Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISTA - news) and ViroLogic Inc. (VLGC - news), which were dropped to hold from strong buy, citing capital risks.
Corvas International Inc. (CVAS - news) and Texas Biotechnology Corp. (TXB - news) were also lowered to hold from strong buy, due to clinical development remaining in a quiet period.
Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VIRS - news) also went to a hold, citing valuation and commercial risk.
Analyst John Sonnier said the four fundamental risks for these companies are management/infrastructure, technical, regulatory, and capital risk.
Sonnier said seven of the firm's former strong buy-rated stocks were given the firm's now-highest buy ratings; including Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:AMLN - news), Cerus Corp. (Nasdaq:CERS - news), Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:GLFD - news), Insmed Inc. (Nasdaq:INSM - news), Pozen Inc. (Nasdaq:POZN - news), Scios Inc. (Nasdaq:SCIO - news), and Trimeris Inc. (Nasdaq:TRMS - news). Neose Technologies (Nasdaq:NTEC - news) was upgraded to buy from hold.<<
snip
"Clinical development remaining in a quiet period." I guess that means that CVAS & TXB are among Mr. Sonnier's pet peeve slowpoke biotechs. They'll probably announce clinical news within two weeks, just to spite him. CVAS, though not a BLUE HP candidate, might be worth a look if it suffers badly from this downgrade. I know nada about TXB. Appropriately, POZN is unchanged as I type.
End of my ruminating on DPII: in addition to promising chemical synthesis and HTS technology, it also has topological protein surface analysis technology (TOKEN), data mining capability (haven't heard much about it, though), and gene expression via Xenometrix. For TrickleMavens, they also let slip that they use FLIPR assays at the moment. That's MDCC technology.
Cheers, Tuck |
