UPDATE: Jefferies & Company Reiterates Hold Rating, Lowers PT on Protalix BioTherapeutics

In a report published Friday, Jefferies & Company reiterated its Hold rating on Protalix BioTherapeutics

, but slightly lowered its price target from $6.00 to $5.50. Jefferies noted, “Narrower 3Q12 net loss of $5.5M on $5.4M revenue and ~22% lower OpEx (vs. ours of $14M). While PLX booked profit share on Elelyso sales from PFE in 3Q12 revenue (amount undisclosed), we await visibility on U.S./Israel launch progress for Elelyso in Gaucher Disease (GD). Given high hurdles to Elelyso commercialization, including established market presence of Cerezyme/Vpriv (no supply shortage), we maintain our Hold rating.” Protalix BioTherapeutics closed on Thursday at $4.86.