Piper Jaffray Upgrades Medicis Pharmaceutical To Overweight; Raises PT To $38

Piper Jaffray is upgrading Medicis

to Overweight from Neutral and raising the PT to $38. With Friday's settlement with Teva on the Solodyn generic litigation, with Teva not launching its generics on the 65 and 115 mg doses until February 2018 and on the 55, 80 and 105 mg doses until February 2019, Piper now has more confidence that cash flows from MRX's flagship product are sustainable. With the greater clarity on Solodyn, plus net cash approaching $800M by year-end, and greater visibility on the pipeline, Piper believes that the potential for significant value creation potential as 2011 progresses is considerable. Beyond Revance's topical botulinum toxin RT001, which Piper believes could be a significant long-term driver, MRX had not provided much visibility on its pipeline. On Friday however, it noted that it has 6 Phase II/III-stage products in dermatology and/or aesthetics, and conceded that NDA filings in 2011 are possible. Further, MRX remains highly active on the business development front, and suggested that it is exploring the addition of commercial-stage assets. MRX closed Friday at $25.82