UPDATE 1-RESEARCH ALERT-UBS raises Pharmasset to buy; shrs up
April 2nd, 2008 | by admin |April 2 (Reuters) - UBS upgraded its rating on PharmassetInc (VRUS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to “buy” from “neutral,” citing the company’spromising drug development programs, and said the stock’svaluation was attractive again.
Shares of the company rose as much as 5.3 percent inmorning trade.
“Share price has contracted since the promising R7128 dataemerged, and we believe this creates an attractive entry,” UBSanalyst Annabel Samimy said in a note to clients.
Pharmasset, which went public in April last year, isdeveloping drugs targeting viruses like HIV, hepatitis B andhepatitis C. The product R7128 is being developed for hepatitisC, a liver destroying virus.
Analyst Samimy, who earlier had a “neutral” rating on thestock, said the company has “two lead programs withbest-in-class potential in the hepatitis B and hepatitis Cmarkets, with differentiated safety and efficacy profiles.”
“Thus far, R7128 appears most promising,” Samimy said.
The analyst added after a meeting of the EuropeanAssociation for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in late April,where the company will present certain R7128 data, the rest of2008 would be placid for the company, while 2009 would be”pivotal.”
Shares of Pharmasset, based in Princeton, New Jersey, weretrading up more than 4 percent at $19.89 in morning trade onNasdaq.
They have more than doubled since they debuted at $9 ashare on April 26, 2007. (Reporting by Varsha Tickoo in Bangalore; Editing by JarshadKakkrakandy)
