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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jermoney who wrote (7382)	4/23/1998 8:39:00 PM
From: Neil_L	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23519

Shorting near or at 52 lows...need to clarify more...its not a good idea if the company has strong fundamentals and is volatile. I have been short the cigar makers for a while now and they keep making new lows...fundamentals are lacking. As a longtime follower of this thread and the stock, I am beginning to believe that TA is really Wole Fayemi, our famed analyst (read below). He is always popping up on the thread at the most opportune moments<g> In reference to the production problems mentioned earlier on the thread, I think they may be in connection with the article below. Couldn't find a link for it. Neil. =================================================== Vivus -2: Analyst Sees Coattail Benefit From Viagra BUENA PARK, Calif. (Dow Jones)--Vivus Inc.'s (VVUS) stock surged Thursday after a research report suggested the company's Muse product could get a lift from Viagra, Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) hot new impotence drug. Earlier Thursday, Cruttenden Roth Inc. analyst Wole M. Fayemi raised his rating on Vivus to strong buy from neutral. Fayemi told Dow Jones he's gone through Pfizer's New Drug Application and concluded that Viagra, while very effective on mild and psychologically related cases of erectile dysfunction, is "only marginally effective in moderate to severe cases." He expects many of the new customers who have flocked to Viagra since its release two weeks ago to start looking for other alternatives - especially Muse, which has been proven to work across-the-board. "We estimate that Viagra is likely to be effective in less than 50% of all erectile dysfunction patients," Fayemi said in the report. "Thus, a large percentage of patients who fail on Viagra are likely to progress to Muse." The analyst said he doesn't mean to imply that Viagra won't be a strong seller - its appeal is in its easy-to-use pill form, where Muse involves the more cumbersome injection of a drug locally into the urethra through the tip of the penis. Viagra will also have a large "recreational" following, Fayemi said. But among the moderate and severe patients who try Viagra but don't find it effective, he added, "more of them will ultimately migrate toward Muse." The report sent the stock of Vivus, of Menlo Park, Calif., up by as much as 24%. It recently was trading at 9 1/2, up 1 1/2, or 18.8%. Nasdaq volume was 2.9 million shares, compared with a daily average of 1.1 million. Cruttenden Roth analyst Fayemi cautioned that any coattail sales of Vivus's Muse resulting from public interest in Pfizer's Viagra will be limited, at least in the near-term, by Vivus's production restraints. The inability to produce enough Muse caused Vivus's shares to plummet in early December. After the product's launch in early 1997, demand for Muse quickly outstripped supply. But in an effort to complete construction of a new plant, Vivus allowed production at the first plant to suffer. Prior to the production problems, jitters about the impending launch of Viagra had already weakened Vivus's stock, which had soared to a high of 41 7/8 on Oct. 6. Recently, in the wake of Viagra's launch, Vivus was trading at a 52-week low of 7 5/8. A Vivus spokeswoman said the company expects Food and Drug Administration approval of the new plant by the end of the second quarter. She said that after an initial period of infatuation with Viagra, many patients will end up with Muse. "We believe that the launch of the Pfizer product and all the attention that's out there is only going to drive more people in to seek treatment," said the Vivus spokeswoman, Nina Ferrari. "The biggest problem that we have had has been to get the person off the couch and into the doctor's office to seek treatment," she said. Because of Viagra's side effects, conflicts with other medications and other medical conditions, "we will be able to convert many of the patients that come in," Ferrari said. A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment directly on Vivus, but pointed out that Viagra had a 70% efficacy rate in long-term trials on more than 4,000 men. The Pfizer spokesman said the response for Viagra was greatest in cases of psychologically caused impotence and in men with spinal-cord injury, with 80%. In diabetics, a major group of men with impotence, response rates were 50%-60%, and for men with radical prostate surgery, the response rate was 43%. -By Anthony Palazzo; 714-739-5538; tony.palazzo@cor.dowjones.com "Dow Jones News Service" "Copyright(c) 1998, Dow Jones & Company, Inc."