UPDATE: Aegis Capital Initiates Coverage on Trius Therapeutics with Buy Rating, $15 PT

In a report published Monday, Aegis Capital Corp. initiated coverage on Trius Therapeutics

with a Buy rating and $15.00 price target. Aegis Capital noted, “We are initiating coverage on Trius Therapeutics with a Buy rating and a 15-month price target of $15.00 per share. We believe that Trius is in the vanguard of novel antibiotics development, with the firm's lead drug candidate tedizolid phosphate currently in a Phase 3 trial for treatment of skin and skin structure infections. We expect top-line data from this confirmatory trial in early 2013. A previous Phase 3 trial of similar design has already reported positive data. With favorable results from both trials in hand, we believe that Trius could file for approval of its first drug product in 2H 2013 and potentially achieve market entry in late 2014. Tedizolid phosphate, the lead candidate, is a novel oxazolidinone drug. Both Phase 3 trials are under Special Protocol Assessments (SPAs) from the FDA. Given the massive need for novel antibiotics in order to combat the specter of multi-drugresistant bacterial infections, we consider Trius to be in the right place at the right time.” Trius Therapeutics closed on Friday at $4.74.