Ariad Pharma Falls On Weak Leukemia Drug Prescriptions

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (TheStreet) -- Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA) has been hit with a wave of selling in the past two weeks tied to investor concerns about the commercial launch of the company's leukemia drug Iclusig. The selling has erased all the gains made in the Ariad since the beginning of the year.

For the past two weeks, Iclusig scripts have been soft, up 8% for the week ended March 8 and down 17% for the week ended March 15, according to IMS Health. Say what you will about the reliability and meaningfulness of a week's worth of prescription data, but Wall Street follows this stuff closely. A down week in scripts for a drug like Iclusig -- with high sales expectations already baked into Ariad's $3.4 billion market valuation -- raises alarm bells.

Ariad shares have closed in the red for eight straight trading days -- a streak that finally appears to be ending Wednesday. Still, Ariad is down 17% during this time period.

I spoke with a healthcare investor Wednesday who's short Ariad and believes the stock is still significantly over-valued because Iclusig's peak sales will never match current expectations. On average, analysts are projecting Iclusig sales to grow from $47 million in 2013 to $611million in 2016.

See the original post:
Ariad Pharma Falls On Weak Leukemia Drug Prescriptions