Alright Pharma Investors, time for the daily pharma watch.
BioCryst (BCRX):
This morning BioCryst partner Shionogi received marketing approval for Peramivir to treat flu patients in Japan. As a result of the approval BioCryst will receive a $7 million dollar milestone payment and possibly receive future payments of up to $95 million from Shionogi. This is very positive news given that there have been reports from various news organizations that demand for H1N1 medicine may be waning after researchers indicated that the virus may have reached its peak in October 2009. Just last week the U.S. reduced its vaccine orders from CSL Ltd for the illness (article here).
Protalix (PLX):
Protalix announced this morning that the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) recommended to grant orphan drug designation to taliglucerase alfa for the treatment of Guacher Disease. It appears that shareholders could care less about the news however. Last month Protalix sold most of the rights of the drug to Pfizer for what I would consider pennies on the dollar. The shares immediately sold off on news of the deal as investors realized that the deal was no good.
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