They Hit The Bulls With Their Best Shot And The Bulls Are Still Standing!
With
the backdrop of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of the number
three steel maker Bethlehem Steel Corp.
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an over 50% drop in profits from the number three US bank Bank
of America Corp.
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and the Senate Majority leader receiving a suspicious letter that tested
positive for anthrax, it’s truly amazing that the Dow is only down 45 points (as
of 12:27 pm CT).
One can only imagine
what any one of those events could have done to the market’s fragile psyche just
a few brief weeks ago. So, given the number of catalysts out there encouraging
profit-taking, we believe the relative strength of the market and heightened
interest in buying rather than selling are clearly the stories of the day.
Back
in August, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel recommended the approval of United
Therapeutics
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with a sharply reduced second-quarter loss on revenue, was good for a 40%
boost in a single session. Flash forward to today, when UTHR reported that
their Phase III clinical trial of oral beraprost did not confirm the positive
results of the European Phase III trial and statistical significance
was not achieved in the study’s endpoints relating to exercise.
Oops! As any active
investor knows, the market giveth and the market taketh away, and today investors
are hammering UTHR by better than 35%. UTHR has pulled the development of
an oral drug to treat intermittent claudication, or pain in walking. They will,
however, continue trials for beraprost to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Before you dump, or
get short, keep in mind that UTHR also is developing a longer-acting product to
provide a sustained increase in blood flow and sustained benefit in patients
with claudication. Also, UTHR’s lead drug Remodulin, has demonstrated safety and
efficacy in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension and demonstrated
efficacy in a mid-level study of advanced peripheral vascular disease.