SEPR Shares Soar ($28-$45) 45% following conditional OK for less addictive insomnia drug Estorra ....Sweet Dreams .
By Ted Griffith, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:48 PM ET March 1, 2004
Shares of Marlborough, Mass.-based Sepracor (SEPR: news, chart, profile) shot up $15.99 to $44.30, on volume of 46.18 million, making it the fourth most active issue on the Nasdaq. Earlier, the stock hit $44.40, a two-year high.
The company said the Food and Drug Administration had granted the anti-insomnia drug, called Estorra, "approvable" status, which means the federal agency will grant final marketing clearance as long as certain conditions are met.
Sepracor didn't spell out in its announcement what the conditions are, but, significantly, the company said the FDA hasn't asked for additional patient testing of the drug. Such testing would have been time consuming and expensive.
Sepracor said it plans to have its "entire sales force" ready for the introduction of Estorra by mid-2004. The drug will compete with, among others, Ambien from Sanofi-Synthelabo (SNY: news, chart, profile) and Sonata from King Pharmaceuticals (KG: news, chart, profile).
The U.S. market for prescription sleep aids grew at a rate of almost 25 percent for the past two years, according to IMS Health, which tracks prescription data. According to an estimate cited by Sepracor, the U.S. market for central nervous system drugs specifically approved for the treatment of insomnia was about $1.5 billion in 2002.
Ted Griffith is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com |
