Company

Bank

Analyst

Coverage

Opinion

Wk chg

10/5 cls

Amarin Corp. plc (NASDAQ:AMRN)

Wedbush

Akiva Felt

Downgrade

Neutral (from outperform)

0%

$12.52

Felt also lowered his target to $15 from $22 on a diminishing probability the company will be acquired. In July, Amarin said it would begin to hire a sales force for Vascepa icosapent ethyl in October if it does not sign a takeover deal. With October underway, Felt said that the "continued absence of a takeover increasingly signals that Amarin lacks the 'must have' status necessary to justify the Street's bullish M&A expectations." In July, FDA approved Vascepa, a purified form of the ethyl ester of eicosapentaenoic acid (ethyl-EPA), as an adjunct to diet to reduce triglyceride levels in adults with severe hypertriglyceridemia.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA)

BMO Capital Markets

Jim Birchenough

Price target

Outperform

4%

$25.16

Jefferies

Eun Yang

Price target

Buy

Summer Street

Ling Wang

Price target

Buy

Birchenough raised his target to $36 from $31 after Ariad presented "better-than-expected" Phase I data of AP26113 in 34 refractory patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive or EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). AP26113 was well tolerated and produced eight partial responses, including six crizotinib-resistant and two crizotinib-naïve patients (see B19). Birchenough believes that the dual inhibitor of ALK and EGFR may have a path for accelerated approval in patients who failed treatment with Xalkori crizotinib from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE). He estimates peak sales of about $250M in Xalkori-resistant NSCLC.