Citi Downgrading Alimera Sciences

Citi Investment Research is out with a research report on Alimera Sciences Inc

and it is downgrading shares to Neutral and it has a $12 price target. In a note to clients, Citi Investment Research writes, "We are downgrading ALIM to Neutral (from Buy) as the FDA indicated on Friday (11/11) that the company's lead product in development (Iluvien for diabetic macular edema) was not approvable and the company would need to conduct two additional clinical trials (which we don't believe will take place given the time/cost). The FDA indicated that the risks in ALIM's pivotal FAME trial were significant and were not offset by the product's benefits. The stock traded down over 73% on Friday (11/11) to $1.96. At this point, given the limited roadmap going forward, we believe ALIM should trade at roughly cash and while the company has about $1.25 in cash per share, we believe that a deal with an EU partner could yield a potential $25M milestone payment (similar to what ALIM would have paid pSivida had Iluvien been approved in the US) and that would give ALIM about $64M in cash or about $2/share." Shares of ALIM closed at $1.96 on Friday, down $5.41, or 73.41%.