Encysive plunges on FDA ruling

Encysive in 50 percent nosedive following negative FDA decision; competing drug from Gilead gets approved.

By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
June 18 2007: 10:27 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The stock price for biotech Encysive Pharmaceuticals plunged more than 50 percent in Monday morning trading, following an FDA decision on Friday to approve a competing heart-lung drug from Gilead while calling Encysive's drug ineffective.

The Food and Drug Administration handed Encysive (Charts) its third "approvable" letter for the drug Thelin, as a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, or high blood pressure in arteries connecting the heart to the lungs. The letter said Thelin was not effective in treating the disease, also known as PAH.

But the FDA approved a PAH drug, known as ambrisentan or Letairis, from Gilead Sciences (down $0.36 to $80.47, Charts). Letairis will compete with Actelion's Tracleer, which totaled $850 million in 2006 sales. Hamed Khorsand, analyst for BWS Financial, projects that annual Letairis sales could reach $600 million by 2012.

Encysive's main competitors include Abbott Laboratories (Charts, Fortune 500) and Sanofi-Aventis (Charts). Top of page

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Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.
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