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Needham & Company Maintains a 'Buy' on Dendreon (DNDN); Did You Get the Memo? CMS Supports the Coverage of PROVENGE for On-Label Use

March 31, 2011 7:44 AM EDT
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Price: $0.13 --0%

Rating Summary:
    2 Buy, 15 Hold, 9 Sell

Rating Trend: = Flat

Today's Overall Ratings:
    Up: 13 | Down: 11 | New: 11
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Needham & Company maintains a 'Buy' on Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN), PT $62.

Needham analyst says, "After the market close yesterday, CMS issued a proposed decision memo stating that “PROVENGE improves health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic mCRPC, and thus is reasonable and necessary for that indication.” While the memo concludes that there is “virtually nil” evidence at this time to support off-label use, the memo leaves local MACs with flexibility to determine coverage for such use without a need to reconsider an NCD, should future evidence demonstrate improvement in health outcomes in this patient group. The final NCD will be issued by June 30. Currently, PROVENGE is available to Medicare patients, as all 15 MACs have established coverage guidelines for PROVENGE. While this news is not unexpected, given the positive vote by the MEDCAC panel for on-label use of PROVENGE in November 2010, we believe the news does remove an overhang on the stock. We expect the investor focus will now shift towards the Company’s ability to meet the timelines for manufacturing and opening of new accounts. We are positively inclined."

For more ratings news on Dendreon click here and for the rating history of Dendreon click here.

Shares of Dendreon closed at $35.54 yesterday.


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