MW Alnylam's stock surges as heart drug vies with a Pfizer blockbuster
By Eleanor Laise
'Clear home run' for Alnylam also boosts shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Intellia Therapeutics
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s stock $(ALNY)$ jumped nearly 40% premarket on Monday after the company released results of a late-stage trial for a heart drug that analysts see competing with a key Pfizer treatment.
The Alnylam drug, vutrisiran, cut the risk of death and recurring cardiovascular problems by 28% in the overall trial population, the company said in a release. The trial involved patients with transthyretin amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy, or ATTR-CM, a debilitating condition that causes the heart to stiffen and limits its ability to pump blood.
Some patients in the trial also took Pfizer's drug for ATTR-CM, which is called tafamidis and marketed as Vyndaqel or Vyndamax. Alnylam's vutrisiran cut the risk of death by 36% in the overall patient population and by 35% in patients taking vutrisiran alone, Alnylam said. Both patient groups also achieved significant improvements on a six-minute walk test, a questionnaire that assesses patients' perception of their health and other measures of disease progression.
The results look like a "best-case scenario win," William Blair analyst Myles Minter said in a research note Monday. The "clear home run" for Alnylam, Minter said, also bodes well for Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Intellia Therapeutics Inc., which are working on related treatments. Ionis shares $(IONS)$ gained about 6% premarket on Monday, while Intellia's stock (NTLA) was up 10%.
The new data show vutrisiran to be "a very competitive drug" in ATTR-CM, BMO Capital Markets analyst Kostas Biliouris said in a research note, with the potential to be used as a first-line treatment for the condition or in combination with Pfizer's Vyndaqel. Pfizer generated $3.3 billion in global sales from the Vyndaqel family of drugs in 2023, up 36% from a year earlier. The pharmaceutical giant's stock $(PFE)$ was up 0.3% premarket Monday.
Alnylam said it plans to file a supplemental application with the Food and Drug Administration for approval of vutrisiran in ATTR-CM. The drug, marketed as Amvuttra, is already approved for treatment of nerve damage related to transthyretin amyloidosis.
Alnylam's stock was down 13% in the year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX gained 14.6%.
-Eleanor Laise
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June 24, 2024 09:12 ET (13:12 GMT)
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