Teva Pharmaceutical's Biggest Blockbuster Might Be To Treat Huntington's

• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) TEVA shares are up 5 percent year-to-date, while hitting a high of $72 on July 23.
• Leerink’s Jason M. Gerberry maintained an Outperform rating on the company, with a price target of $83.
• Specialists have indicated blockbuster potential for VMAT-2 inhibitors like SD-809, Gerberry noted.

Teva Pharmaceuticals’ strengths lie in its market leadership position in a large number of generic pharmaceutical segments, an emerging pipeline of late stage specialty brands and a strong balance sheet. The company’s generic brand Copaxone, however, faces competitive threats in the near future, which could result in erosion of some profits, analyst Jason Gerberry said.

Discussions with MEDACorp neurologists specializing in movement disorders revealed an expanded role for VMAT-2 inhibitors like Teva Pharmaceuticals’ SD-809. The specialists were bullish on the role of VMAT-2 inhibitors in tardive dyskinesia, or TD, tourette’s syndrome and HD-chorea, the Leerink report mentioned.

Teva has reported successful phase 2/3 results for SD-809 in tardive dyskinesia and is currently enrolling patients into two pivotal Phase 3 trials, AIM-TA and RIM-TD. “We continue to see TD as the largest market opportunity for SD-809,” Gerberry mentioned.

Huntington’s chorea is the lead indication for SD-809 and it is likely to get an approval by mid-2016. “The specialists believe the SD-809 Ph. 3 efficacy data looked comparable to slightly better than generic tetrabenazine and expect the drug will be approved,” Gerberry wrote.