Wedbush Reiterates Outperform Rating, $165 PT on Pharmacyclics as IMBRUVICA Approved for Mantle Cell Lymphoma

In a report published Thursday, Wedbush analyst Gregory R. Wade reiterated an Outperform rating and $165.00 price target on Pharmacyclics PCYC. In the report, Wedbush noted, “PCYC's initial patient assistance programs for IMBRUVICA will be focused on on-label patients. While subsequent compendium listings for Imbruvica, most importantly in RR CLL/SLL, may lead to a change to this policy, we expect the absence of support of about $8900 per patient contribution under Medicare Part D payment to be a significant barrier to the nearterm use of the drug in the larger off-label settings. With analysts' estimates for 2014 Imbruvica sales ranging from $100-300 million, we believe there's a good amount of off-label expectations baked into some of the Street's expectations that may not be achieved. As a result of this near-term, but what we expect to be a temporary patient access headwind, we're removing PCYC from the BIL.” Pharmacyclics closed on Wednesday at $123.71.