UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Reiterates Overweight Rating, Lowers PT on Achillion Pharmaceuticals

In a report published Friday, Piper Jaffray & Co. reiterated its Overweight rating on Achillion Pharmaceuticals

, but slightly lowered its price target from $17.00 to $16.00. Piper Jaffray noted, “Achillion ended 2Q:12 with cash of $60 million and received gross proceeds of $41.8 million by issuing QVT 6.367 million shares at $6.57. Achillion has begun dosing HCV genotype 1 patients with NS5A inhibitor ACH-3102 with data in 3Q:12. We expect Achillion to begin Phase II combo trials with protease inhibitor sovaprevir by year-end with data in early 2013. Recent set-backs with Bristol-Myers' and Idenix's ‘nucs' benefit Achillion. We expect the wave of consolidation in HCV will continue with Achillion a likely target. We reiterate our Overweight rating and are trimming our target to $16 from $17 to account for dilution from the QVT deal.” Achillion Pharmaceuticals closed on Thursday at $6.57.