Analysts Dismiss Negative Reports on Questcor (QCOR) as "Misleading"
Tweet Send to a Friend
Get Alerts QCOR Hot Sheet
Price: $37.34 +1.30%
Rating Summary:
9 Buy, 6 Hold, 1 Sell
Rating Trend: = Flat
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 11 | Down: 35 | New: 23
Rating Summary:
9 Buy, 6 Hold, 1 Sell
Rating Trend: = Flat
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 11 | Down: 35 | New: 23
Trade QCOR Now!
Shares of Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOR) are bouncing back mildly early Wednesday after yesterday's 22 percent drubbing on the back of a negative report at Citron Research, as multiple analysts have come out to defend the company.
Jefferies called it 'Groundhog Day in July' for Questcor. "In our view the Citron report rehashes old bear arguments on QCOR and Acthar including competitive threats, and the lack of clinical data and IP protection," analyst Biren Amin states. They believe the technical/commercial hurdles against generic and branded competition for Acthar remain high.
Amin said the Citron report is misleading on the competitive threat, noting that it cites ACTHs previously approved in the 1950-1980s in a somewhat confusing argument, conflating potential branded and generic ACTH candidates, and regulatory hurdles for approval. Of the 7 ACTHs cited, only 1 represents a potential generic ACTH, referencing the defunct short-acting Acthar powder with a different PK/PD profile from the currently marketed Acthar Gel, the firm notes. "We believe this generic Acthar, currently discontinued, is not interchangeable with Acthar Gel and would likely suffer commercially from its short half-life." The firm said the remaining ACTHs were either different versions of QCOR's Acthar or different long-acting ACTHs, also discontinued, likely approved under less stringent criteria in the 1950-1960. "We believe they would have to undergo "modern day" clinical trials should they be "re-launched", and would not be interchangeable with Acthar, having a "me-too" profile without meaningful differentiation."
Jefferies reiterated their Buy rating and $60 price target.
Analysts at Oppenheimer offered similar comments.
"On 7/10, QCOR shares traded down as much as ~22%, perhaps owing to a negative report published by an investor website. We stress that this report made several claims (unsubstantiated, in our opinion) and presented arguments similar to those made in prior negative reports published by other investment research firms or blogs. Importantly, we believe investor concern was focused largely on the possibility of a generic Acthar and potential competition from previously approved corticotropin drugs (some older than Acthar). We believe potential approval/ commercialization of either a generic Acthar or competing corticotropin drug remains years away and does not represent a near-term threat."
Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and $59 price target.
Join StreetInsider.com FREE and get immediately alerted when news breaks on your stocks and other market items - JOIN NOW
*NEW - Download StreetInsider's FREE iPhone and iPad App - Click Here
Jefferies called it 'Groundhog Day in July' for Questcor. "In our view the Citron report rehashes old bear arguments on QCOR and Acthar including competitive threats, and the lack of clinical data and IP protection," analyst Biren Amin states. They believe the technical/commercial hurdles against generic and branded competition for Acthar remain high.
Amin said the Citron report is misleading on the competitive threat, noting that it cites ACTHs previously approved in the 1950-1980s in a somewhat confusing argument, conflating potential branded and generic ACTH candidates, and regulatory hurdles for approval. Of the 7 ACTHs cited, only 1 represents a potential generic ACTH, referencing the defunct short-acting Acthar powder with a different PK/PD profile from the currently marketed Acthar Gel, the firm notes. "We believe this generic Acthar, currently discontinued, is not interchangeable with Acthar Gel and would likely suffer commercially from its short half-life." The firm said the remaining ACTHs were either different versions of QCOR's Acthar or different long-acting ACTHs, also discontinued, likely approved under less stringent criteria in the 1950-1960. "We believe they would have to undergo "modern day" clinical trials should they be "re-launched", and would not be interchangeable with Acthar, having a "me-too" profile without meaningful differentiation."
Jefferies reiterated their Buy rating and $60 price target.
Analysts at Oppenheimer offered similar comments.
"On 7/10, QCOR shares traded down as much as ~22%, perhaps owing to a negative report published by an investor website. We stress that this report made several claims (unsubstantiated, in our opinion) and presented arguments similar to those made in prior negative reports published by other investment research firms or blogs. Importantly, we believe investor concern was focused largely on the possibility of a generic Acthar and potential competition from previously approved corticotropin drugs (some older than Acthar). We believe potential approval/ commercialization of either a generic Acthar or competing corticotropin drug remains years away and does not represent a near-term threat."
Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and $59 price target.
Join StreetInsider.com FREE and get immediately alerted when news breaks on your stocks and other market items - JOIN NOW
*NEW - Download StreetInsider's FREE iPhone and iPad App - Click Here
You May Also Be Interested In
- UPDATE: Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) Opens Higher; Lazard Raises PT to $17
- Two Key Things are Going Against Apple (AAPL) in This Potential $10B Market
- UPDATE: Kansas City Southern (KSU) to Replace Dean Foods (DF) in S&P 500; WhiteWave Foods (WWAV) to S&P MidCap 400
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Analyst Comments, Trader TalkRelated Entities
Jefferies & Co, Citron ResearchComments
qcor
These investor websites are using their articles by so called "analysts" to cause fear and sell offs so that THEY CAN BUY THE STOCK BACK ON THE DIPS AFTER IT HAS RUN UP!!! Ofcourse they have sold their shares for a nice profit first before publishing the article!! This is blatantly easy to see and the crazy thing is that it worked. The stock was ready to pull back from profit taking anyway because it's run up good recently but this sell off was way over done.
qcor
The main concern seems to be generic competition yet sppi which actually has generic competition with their key drug is doing just fine and growing revenues from that drug.
Login with Facebook
Sign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!
Qcor
Citron on Jul 12, 2012 05:19 PMMark as Spam | Reply to this comment
Vaya puntilla el tronco ese de citron