A PROSTATE DRUG'S PROMISEA PROSTATE DRUG'S PROMISEShares of Watson Pharmaceuticals (WPI WPI - Worcester Polytechnic Institute ), down from 32 in April to a 52-week low of 20.17 on Oct. 10, got a swift boost the next day, to 23. That's when the Food & Drug Administration approved Rapaflo, the company's alpha blocker for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia benign prostatic hyperplasia n. Abbr. BPH A nonmalignant enlargement of the prostate gland commonly occurring in men after the age of 50, and sometimes leading to compression of the urethra and obstruction of the flow of urine. (BPH BPH abbr. benign prostatic hyperplasia BPH Benign prostatic hypertrophy, a very common noncancerous cause of prostatic enlargement in older men. ), a disease where the prostate gland enlarges as men age, impeding urine flow. Watson puts the market for BPH at $2 billion, with alpha blockers capturing $1.7 billion. Boehringer Ingelheim's top-selling alpha blocker, Flomax, posted sales of $1.5 billion in the past 12 months. "Rapaflo's fast onset of action onset of action Pharmacology The length of time needed for a medicine to become effective. See Therapeutic drug monitoring. of six to eight hours (vs. Flomax, which can take a week to work) and its clean side-effect profile could make it competitive," says Tim Chiang of FTN FTN Face the Nation (CBS News) FTN Family Television Network FTN Fido Technology Networks FTN FeedThe.Net (website) FTN Franja Transversal del Norte (Guatemala region) Midwest Securities, who rates the stock a buy, with a target of 34. He sees Rapaflo sales of $10 million in 2009 and $25 million in 2010. Unless otherwise noted, neither the sources cited in Inside Wall Street nor their firms hold positions in the stocks under discussion. Similarly, they have no investment banking or other financial relationships with them. Inside Wall Street is posted at businessweek.com/investor at 5 p.m. EST on Thursdays. 
|
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion