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June
2009 »
United Therapeutics Go Up after Cialis Approval
Monday Jun 08, 2009
After winning U.S. approval to sell Eli Lilly & Co.’s impotence pill Cialis for a potentially deadly lung disorder United Therapeutics shares jumped $7.51, or 11 percent, to $74.05 at 10:29 a.m. New York time in NASDAQ Stock Market. This is the biggest intraday gain since Nov. 2, 2007.
The Food and Drug Administration cleared the erection medicine for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a condition marked by elevated pressure in the artery carrying blood from the heart to the lungs to pick up oxygen. United Therapeutics said in a statement that it will sell the drug under the brand name Adcirca beginning in early August.
“We have reviewed the label and it looks to be a near best-case scenario,” Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York, said in a note to clients today. “In a ‘best- case’ scenario, we believe Adcirca U.S. sales could reach $200 million before the 2017 patent expiration.”
Lilly, of Indianapolis, sold U.S. rights for the pulmonary arterial hypertension use to United Therapeutics in November. Other drugs used to relax blood vessels include Pfizer Inc.’s Revatio, Actelion Ltd.’s Tracleer and Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Letairis. |
