Millennium jumps after TV plug, drug news
By Val Brickates Kennedy, MarketWatch
Last Update: 3:15 PM ET June 17, 2005
BOSTON (MarketWatch) - Millennium Pharmaceuticals rose significantly on Friday, the day after it released promising drug news and was featured on a popular business TV show.
Shares of Millennium (MLNM: news, chart, profile) advanced 14% to $9.44 by mid-afternoon on Friday.
Analysts attributed much of Friday's spike to popular CNBC host Jim Cramer touting Millennium on his show "Mad Money" late Thursday. A Millennium spokeswoman confirmed the company had been featured positively on the show.
But the analysts also pointed out that Cramer's praise came on the heels of positive clinical data for both its oncology drug Velcade and its drug candidate MLN02, which is being tested to treat ulcerative colitis. The studies appear in the recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The Food and Drug Administration approved Velcade in 2003 for the treatment of the cancer multiple myeloma. The NEJM study showed the drug was more effective in treating multiple myleoma than other standard medications in patients who had relapsed.
Millennium co-markets Velcade with Johnson & Johnson. (JNJ: news, chart, profile)
"The studies are a further validation of Velcade," said CIBC World Markets Corp. analyst Bret Holley.
Christopher Raymond, an analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co., agreed.
"There's a feeling that there's an upside to Velcade," said Raymond, adding that the company might report 2005 Velcade sales as high as $216 million. The current Wall Street consensus is around $194 million, he said. |
