ABIOMED Announces Early Termination of Protect II (ABMD)

Piper Jaffray released its report today on Abiomed

following ABMD's decision to terminate their Protect II Study. In its report, Piper Jaffray writes, "Following the recommendation of its Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), management opted to terminate PROTECT II due to futility. The futility determination was due to a higher than expected adverse event rate in a subset of patients in the treatment arm that negatively skewed the data. Looking beyond the negative headline, there are aspects of Protect II that are highly encouraging, but in the short term, the confusion could impact utilization." Piper Jaffray maintains its Overweight rating and $14 price target on ABMD. ABMD closed yesterday at $12.19.