UPDATE: Jefferies Downgrades Aveo Pharmaceuticals to Hold on Regulatory Risk

Jefferies lowered its rating on Aveo Pharmaceuticals

from Buy to Hold and reduced its price target from $30 to $11. Jefferies said, "The critical new disclosure from AVEO's 2Q update is FDA concern on an unfavorable overall survival (OS) trend for tivozanib vs. Nexavar (81% vs. 77% one-year survival) in its Phase 3 renal cell cancer trial. While we accept AVEO's theory for why these OS data are acceptable, it is very unclear how the FDA will judge the situation. We are downgrading to a Hold rating to reflect regulatory uncertainty." Aveo Pharmaceuticals closed at $9.75 on Thursday.