Biotech Implosion: Idenix Pharmaceuticals (IDIX)

Idenix Pharma (NASDAQ:IDIX) this morning announced that its Valopicitabine development program was placed on clinical hold in the United States after discussions with the FDA.  Unfortunately this was the company’s hoped-for hepatitis C treatment.

Jean- Pierre Sommadossi, Ph.D., chairman & CEO of Idenix: "We are disappointed with the FDA’s perspective on the program and are working with Novartis to evaluate our options for valopicitabine.  We remain committed to building a leading antiviral franchise and will continue to focus on ensuring a successful launch of Tyzeka®/Sebivo® and on advancing our pipeline. We have a novel non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor being evaluated in phase I clinical testing for the treatment of HIV. Additionally, we have a comprehensive HCV discovery effort, which includes a second-generation nucleoside polymerase inhibitor that is being evaluated in IND-enabling preclinical testing and novel HCV non-nucleoside polymerase inhibitor and HCV protease inhibitor programs."

The company claims approximately $160 million of cash on hand at June 30 and said it will be reviewing expenses and will review investing in programs it thinks can maximize shareholder value.  As of March 31 it carried $82.646 million in total liabilities, so don’t look at that cash level as "net cash after liabilities."

Shares are down 17% to $4.78 pre-market, down 17% or so from the $5.59 52-week low and down well over 50% from the $11.21 52-week highs.  Its market cap before this drop was $325 million.

Jon C. Ogg
July 13, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.