On a scale of one to ten, i give the appearance a 2.
And i blame VVUS management.
Leland, and i discussed this with some people on friday, should never had appeared on CNBC.
They are openly hostile to anyone competing with Viagra, they already are on record as anti-VVUS, and there was very little upside to the appearance. Also, Leland does not do well in these situations. VVUS management wouold have been much better off just issuing press releases to get their points across. There would have been no cross examination this way. Just look how nicely the stock moved after the last press release.
On the positive side:
Leland said MUSE is approved in 9 countries now, i thought he meant internationally. In the following list, i only count 7 countries other then the US, which means there must be 2 new approvals to be announced?
United States, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, and South Africa.
He also stated that they expect 25 new approvals this year. Well, the most recent information i've seen said they expected only 18 to 20 this year, and that number included some of the above countries.
What should Leland have done?
Leland should have come into the interview with Just 2 or 3 points and hammered the F**K out of them on CNBC over and over again.
Something like, International demand is stronger then even we expected and we are expecting 25 new approvals this year..............
He also should have had prepared answers to the negative questions expected of CNBC.
lastly, i would have liked him to say something about the media reports regarding deaths with Viagra and the NIH trials having mice born blind.
This isn't the end of VVUS. As the smoke clears, international market is sized up, and scripts begin to reverse, share price will recover later half of 1998.
Mike |
