Traders Place Last Minute Bets on Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA)

June 26, 2012 3:21 PM EDT
Traders only have a few more hours to trade Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNA) ahead of an important FDA decision on Lorcaserin on Wednesday, June 27th. This binary event has the potential to boost shares to $15 on an clean approval with absence of REMS, and down to $6-$8 on a CRL.

It is unknown if the company will let the stock trade tomorrow ahead of the news or if they will halt them in the morning. Ahead of the FDA panel review for Lorcaserin, the stock was halted starting at 7AM and shares didn't resume until after the vote at 5:50PM that day.

However, many companies let their stock trade right up until minutes before the release. On its PDUFA date in March, Discovery Labs (Nasdaq: DSCO) let their stock traded most of the day - halting just 30 minutes before announcing FDA approval. Alexza Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALXA) did the same in May when it received a CRL from the FDA.

In addition to Arena, the FDA decision has major implications for rivals VIVUS Inc. (Nasdaq: VVUS) and Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: OREX). These stocks will trade even if Arena is halted.


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