| The $2000 Swine Flu Drug | 11/5/09 |
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The peramivir pricing speculation is over, and the first order has been shipped. The U.S. FDA issued BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) emergency use authorization for its swine flu antiviral in October, but at that point a price had not been settled. In an interview with CNBC, CEO Jon Stonehouse declined to comment on his negotiations with the government, except to say that, “clearly a premium should be charged for those drugs that help people get out of the ICU quickly.” Today BioCryst received its first government order for 10,000 courses of peramivir with a hefty $22.5 million price tag — more than $2,000 per course. Stonehouse said, “We expect to complete production of approximately 120,000 additional courses of i.v. peramivir by the end of December, and we are prepared to produce more if required.” If the pricing remains constant that would be nearly $300 million in revenue for the less than $400 million company, though it’s not clear if that would be the case. Prior to today’s opening bell, Alpha Pro Tech (APT) was the only component of the Swine and Bird Flu Stocks Index to outperform BioCryst over the last week. Alpha, which makes a variety of products ranging from house wraps to dog beds has surged on flu-driven demand for its N-95 respirator masks. Chinese vaccine play Sinovac Biotech (SVA) was the first to receive Chinese approval for its H1N1 inoculation. The stock has also shown strength recently, up by 7.5% in the last five sessions. Before today, domestic small-caps Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) and Inovio Biomedical (INO) have both slipped by over -10% for the the last week. Still, both are outperforming Hemispherx Biopharma (HEB), which has now fallen by over -30% in the last month. On a one-month basis, most of the large-cap swine flu players are in positive territory. Baxter International (BAX), Gilead Biosciences (GILD), and Roche (OTC: RHHBY), however, have slipped by -2% or more for the period. As of this writing, the Swine and Bird Flu Stocks Index is one of the 75 worst-performing Indexes over the last month, down by -4%. |
