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Regulus (RGLS) Data Presents Minimal Risk to Gilead (GILD), Baird Says; 'RG-101 Data Looks About as Competitive as Dead Interferons'

October 22, 2014 1:07 PM EDT
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Price: $73.26 -0.58%

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    24 Buy, 16 Hold, 2 Sell

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    Up: 20 | Down: 14 | New: 22
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Baird analyst Brian Skorney weighed in on Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) amid question about the risk of the Regulus (NASDAQ: RGLS) data to Gilead's Hep C franchise.

"The early data appears, in our view, to not offer any meaningful role in the future treatment of Hep C and represents a minimal risk to Gilead given products with similar Phase 1 profiles have been completely dropped from the development pipeline," Skorney said. He added, "Speculation about a single dose cure is completely without merit."

Skorney further said RG-101 data looks about as competitive as dead interferons. "We believe the 4.1 number is all the market sees, not the 29 days it takes to get there," he commented. "While this drug has clear antiviral activity, it does not appear in any way superior to a number of other injectable drugs, most notably some of the recent interferons... Interferon lambda has been all but abandoned by Bristol despite what we see as a similar clinical profile to Regulus"

He said anything can get to 4 log10 at four weeks, relevance of exponentially quicker activity still uncertain. "Hep C cures are essentially at 100% with daily pills, so simply achieving viral suppression is meaningless. In order to play a role in the future of therapy, we believe an agent would have to match current therapy (Harvoni) or reduce the duration of current therapy. Harvoni is the combination of two drugs: sofosbuvir, which reduces viral loads by 4.7 log10 within 7 days, and ledipisvir, which reduces viral loads by 3.3 log10 within 3 days. We still think it is a very open ended question how short the duration can be when you add another oral component with similar rapid antiviral activity, much less an exponentially slower injectable antiviral."

The firm maintained an Outperform rating and price target of $103 on GILD.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Gilead Sciences click here. For more ratings news on Gilead Sciences click here.

Shares of Gilead Sciences closed at $106.67 yesterday.



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