Achillion shares fall on concerns over hep C drug's future

Achillion shares fall on concerns over hep C drug's future

Stock Market Predictions

(Global Markets) - Achillion Pharmaceuticals' (ACHN.O) shares fell 12 percent on Friday, shedding some of their recent gains amid concerns raised by an investment website on the future of the company's key hepatitis C drug.

On Thursday, investment website Seeking Alpha said the company was at a disadvantage as none of its hepatitis drugs in development were nucleosides.

While Brean Murray Carret analyst Brian Skorney felt the investor reaction was a fallout of the article, he didn't think the article was "fundamentally meaningful," or raised any new concerns.

Achillion's experimental hepatitis C drug, ACH-1625, is expected to compete with rival drugs from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX.O) and Merck & Co (MRK.N), but must be taken with commercially manufactured interferon, and is seen facing a big threat from nucleotide drugs.

Most hepatitis C drugs used now are combination therapies, and these new drugs -- nucleosides -- could be a game changer for both patients and physicians.

Inhibitex (INHX.O), Pharmasset VRUS.O and Idenix (IDIX.O) are all developing a promising new type of hepatitis C medicine called nucleotide polymerase inhibitors, which work by targeting polymerase -- an enzyme essential for replication of the hepatitis C virus.

"The Seeking Alpha comment that Achillion's pipeline is a long shot could have had some negative effect. Also the stock has run up ... so some people are taking profit. Those are the potential possibilities," said William Blair & Co analyst Katherine Xu.

Since the beginning of the year, Achillion's stock has risen 39 percent, sparked by M&A activity in the hepatitis C treatment space.

"On the fundamental side, I don't think the company has changed anything since the last week," Xu added.

Shares of the New Haven, Connecticut-based company were down 9.5 percent at $9.54. They fell to a low of $9.40 earlier in the session. (Reporting by Shailesh Kuber in Bangalore; Editing by Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)