Alexion stock rises on reports of activist investor – Stock in the US rare disease specialist Alexion Pharmaceuticals is up 6% this morning on reports that the famed New York-based activist hedge fund Elliot Management has taken a stake. Elliott has reportedly threatened to initiate a proxy battle potentially to replace the relatively new management team unless Alexion’s recent lacklustre stock price performance improves, including possibly soliciting a takeover offer of this once-stellar performing US biotech. Alexion is a core top 10 holding of the European listed healthcare/biotech investment trusts including the UK-listed Worldwide Healthcare Trust, International Biotech Trust and Biotech Growth Trust and Switzerland’s BB Biotech and HBM Biotechnology.
Alexion’s previous success has been on a single drug, Soliris, which is approved for two ultra rare conditions: paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, and was recently approved for myasthenia gravis. Alexion’s success with Soliris has attracted a number of copy-products and although none has yet reached pivotal trials, these are assumed will do so in the next few years. In anticipation of competition, Alexion is developing a less frequently-dosed son-of-Soliris, coded ALXN1210. Pivotal data for this follow up drug are due in Q2 next year and a respected US sell-side firm predicts up to 30% upside if the study shows clinical superiority to Soliris. Alexion’s stock, currently trading at $116, is just over half of its mid 2015 peak of $204 after the company ran into a number of problems in 2016-17, which resulted in a number of management changes.
ALXN : Alexion stock rises on reports of activist investor