Promacta Receives FDA Approval for Children with ITP; Roth Raffirms Ligan Pharma (LGND) at 'Buy' (NVS)

Roth Capital reaffirms its Buy rating and $135 target on Ligand Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: LGND) after Novartis (NYSE: NVS) announced that Promacta was approved by FDA for use in children six years and older with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

Analyst Joseph Pantginis commented, This represents another successful expansion of Promacta's label, approved for several indications leading to thrombocytopenia: adult ITP, chemotherapyinduced and chronic Hepatitis C thrombocytopenia and aplastic anemia. Promacta was shown to significantly increase platelet counts in this patient population in two studies (PETIT and PETIT II) with a safety profile consistent with that shown in adult patients. Promacta offers an important therapeutic modality for use in pediatric population who often are unable to tolerate standard treatments which include corticosteroids and IVIG. It's estimated that five in 100,000 children suffer from ITP with 30% of these suffering from the chronic form of the disease (>6 months). As these children are at increased risk of bleeding it is essential to maintain platelet counts, particularly in the chronic form of the disease.

This event also marks the first Promacta approval under Novartis who took over oncology assets from GSK (NYSE: GSK). We believe this is a good sign for things to come from this partnership as we project increasing visibility out of Novartis for oncology based indications. Recall that NVS has indicated that they intend to file a sNDA for chemotherapy induced thrombocytopenia (CIT) in MDS patients his year and we consider this the "low hanging fruit" indication for oncology.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Ligand Pharma click here. For more ratings news on Ligand Pharma click here.

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