Bank of America Raises PO on Idenix Pharmaceuticals to $18

Bank of America has published a research report on Idenix Pharmaceuticals

and has raised the price objective from $9 to $18 after seeing increased valuation after the Inhibitex

acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb

over the weekend. In the report, Bank of America writes, "We are raising our IDIX PO from $9 to $18, driven primarily by our view that valuation in HCV smallcap has materially increased following the $2.5B INHX acquisition this weekend. We believe data from the Phase 2 data for IDIX's HCV nuc IDX184 announced today is as expected, clearly less active than GILD/VRUS's PSI-7977 and higher doses of BMY/INHX's INX189, but likely active enough in combination with other active antivirals to be a useful drug to blunt viral resistance in an all oral HCV combination. Our $18 PO assumes a $2.5B valuation, discounted by 30% to account for tolerability risks and the partial clinical hold expected to be lifted in 1Q following today's data." Bank of America maintains its Buy rating on Idenix Pharmaceuticals, which is currently trading up $2.54 from Friday's $7.05 closing price.