Piper Jaffray Maintains Overweight on Arena Pharma After FDA Approval This Morning

Piper Jaffray has published a research report on Arena Pharmaceuticals

after the FDA accepted Arena's complete response for weight loss drug lorcaserin this morning as a Class II acceptance. In the report, Piper Jaffray writes, "This morning, the FDA accepted Arena's complete response for weight loss drug lorcaserin as a Class II acceptance, setting the new PDUFA date for June 27. Contrary to Arena's current valuation of $234 million and Street expectations, we believe the additional data in the complete response will be sufficient to address the FDA's concerns. We see the directive from the Senate Appropriations Committee to the FDA to report on steps to support obesity drug development along with FDA acceptance of the QNEXA NDA as evidence that the regulatory environment is improving. While regulatory risk remains, we continue to find the risk:reward favorable for ARNA shares and reiterate our Overweight rating and $3 price target." Piper Jaffray maintains its Overweight rating and $3 price target on Arena Pharmaceuticals, which is currently trading up $0.17 from yesterday's $1.61 closing price.