William Blair & Company Initiates Coverage of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. With Outperform Rating.CHICAGO -- William Blair
An analyst recommendation meaning a stock is expected to do slightly better than the market return. Notes: Exact definitions vary by brokerage, but in general this rating is better than neutral and worse than buy or strong buy. rating. Alexion's primary focus is the development of Soliris (eculizumab) to treat paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria n. An infrequent disorder the onset of which usually occurs in the third or fourth decades of life and is characterized by periods of hemolytic anemia, hemoglobinuria primarily at night, pallor, bronzing of the skin, (PNH PNH paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) A rare complement disorder characterized by episodes of red blood cell destruction (hemolysis) and blood in the urine (hemoglobinuria) that is worse at ), a severe, rare disease that leads to mortality in about 50% of patients within 15 years of diagnosis. Analyst John Sonnier estimated that the company would generate revenue of $33 million in 2007 and $112.8 million in 2008. "The key driver of shareholder value for Alexion is the company's lead compound, Soliris, which is under review at the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Refers to that region of the world. For example, one might see products packaged differently for the UK, EMEA and Asia Pacific markets. ," Sonnier said. "Given the positive pivotal clinical program (TRIUMPH) and interim data from the SHEPHERD study presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting in 2006, we believe the company is well positioned to receive approval from the FDA, with an action date of March 20, and the EMEA in the near term." "We believe price performance will be driven by approval of Soliris and by potential upside to Street estimates in the pricing of Soliris and the total addressable Reachable. When something is addressable, it can be identified and manipulated independently of its surroundings. For example, screen pixels and RAM memory are addressable. Each of the screen's picture elements can be individually turned on and off, and each of the memory's bytes can be patient population," he added. "Given the size of the ultra-orphan PNH market, which we estimate to be 6,000 to 9,000 people worldwide, we expect pricing to be a key part of the Soliris story in the near term. With strong clinical data in a deadly disease with few other clinical alternatives, we believe the company will be able to price Soliris along the lines of treatments for other rare genetic diseases--such as Cerezyme, to treat Gaucher disease--that command more than $200,000 per year of treatment." William Blair & Company, L.L.C. has received compensation for investment banking services from the company within the past 12 months, or expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking services in the next 3 months. William Blair & Company, L.L.C. is a market maker in the security of this company and may have a long or short position. For important disclosures and information regarding the firm's rating system, valuation methods and potential conflicts of interest, please visit: http://www.williamblair.com/Pages/news_story_dept.asp?uid=1168&depID=4 Additional information is available upon request. |
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