Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANTH) is now caught between a rock and a hard place. A near-50% drop in a share price is never a good sign, so we want to look further at the company’s overall prospects after its cardiovascular drug failed in a late-stage trial.
Anthera has now ended its varespladib trial because the drug offered no benefits over the placebo against acute coronary syndrome. Varespladib is, or was, Anthera’s most advanced product candidate.
The company is currently studying blisibimod as a possible lupus treatment currently in mid-stage trials. If it is similar to Benlysta, then there may be some disappointment that its sales are not as strong as once hoped. Anthera has another candidate which aims to treat sickle cell disease.
With a drop of 45% to $3.54, the stock broke its prior 52-week trading range of $4.42 to $9.08 and its current market cap is now $145 million according to Yahoo! Finance. The volume of over 6 million shares is about 40 day’s worth of trading volume.
At last look, the company did have close to $100 million in liquidity and almost $50 million in net tangible assets. Today’s new may not offer many great prospects for the company’s pipeline, but financially this one does not appear to be on the verge of a biotech implosion yet.
JON C. OGG
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