Vivus Strength May Be Attributable to Comments From Passport Capital's John Burbank

After rising more than 77% yesterday in the wake of a 20-2 vote by an FDA advisory panel to recommend approval of the company's weight-loss drug Qnexa, Vivus, Inc. VVUS shares have added another 12% to $20.94 on Friday. Some of the continued strength in the name may be attributable to comments that hedge fund manager John Burbank made in a Bloomberg Television interview today. Speaking about his portfolio, the Passport Capital founder said, "Our strategy is to be picking individual securities, companies that are not depending on economic growth. Biotech and healthcare is one of those sectors. There hasn't been an obesity drug approved in over 30 years and we thought Qnexa would have a good chance of being approved…We were one of I think four big holders in the stock. We think it can double again because we think a large pharma would probably like to own the company at some point."