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ARIAD: Acquisition by Takeda Bodes Well, Competition a Risk

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On Jan 13, we issued an updated report on ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. . ARIAD’s one-month share price movement shows that the stock has significantly outperformed the Zacks classified Medical-Drugs industry. Specifically, the company gained 89.2% during this period, while the industry lost 4%.



Notably, ARIAD’s shares got a boost after the company entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical for approximately $5.2 billion in Jan 2017. The transaction is slated to close in the first quarter of 2017. Through the acquisition, Takeda will add ARIAD’s sole marketed product, Iclusig, to its portfolio.

In Nov 2016, the FDA granted a full approval to Iclusig following its successful completion of the commitments made on the receipt of accelerated approval in Dec 2012. Iclusig is approved in both the U.S. and the EU for the treatment of adult patients with T315I-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ALL). In Sep 2016, Iclusig was approved in Japan and is being marketed by partner Otsuka.

Notably, Iclusig was granted orphan drug designation by the FDA for the indication. ARIAD is also working on expanding Iclusig’s label especially into earlier lines of treatment which will expand the market significantly.

Meanwhile, ARIAD has entered into many deals for the development and commercialization of Iclusig in different territories. We are also positive on ARIAD’s non-dilutive synthetic-royalty financing deal with PDL BioPharma. Moreover, ARIAD’s deal with Incyte Corporation will allow it to penetrate the U.S. market.

Meanwhile, ARIAD completed the rolling submission of an NDA for its most advanced pipeline candidate brigatinib to the FDA in Aug 2016. The candidate has been developed for the treatment of patients suffering from locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The FDA has granted breakthrough therapy status to brigatinib. The EU submission for brigatinib is slated for the first quarter of 2017.

On the flip side, even though the CML market represents significant potential, Iclusig faces intense competition due to the presence of established players such as Novartis AG’s (NVS - Free Report) Gleevec, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company’s (BMY - Free Report) Sprycel and Pfizer Inc.’s (PFE - Free Report) Bosulif. All of these drugs are approved for the treatment of CML in patients who are either resistant or intolerant to prior TKI therapies.

Zacks Rank

ARIAD currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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