Does a Surprise Approval Make Alnylam Pharmaceuticals a Buy?
Surprises in the biopharma industry are probably biased toward bad news, but Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY) bucked the trend on Nov. 20 by announcing that it earned marketing approval for a drug candidate only four months after submitting a new drug application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It typically takes six to 10 months -- or longer -- for a decision to be handed down.
Shares have risen rapidly as Wall Street analysts scramble to update their financial models for the business. The company thinks the drug, Givlaari (givosiran), a treatment for adults with a rare disease called acute hepatic porphyria (AHP), could capture most of the estimated $500 million market opportunity.
The approval gives Alnylam Pharmaceuticals two marketed products and confidence it can increase that to four by the end of 2020. It also suggests that the company's targeted delivery approach could overcome previously encountered obstacles for the technology platform.
Source Fool.com
