Hepatitis C In Play for 2013?: Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IDIX)

These Companies are tackling Hep C

With so many failures and problems for hepatitis C drug makers, are there any companies of value in the Hep C space? Sure there are, but there are very limited options. Two that I can think of are Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACHN). and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX)., both of which are safe for now from the FDA, as they don’t use nucleoside inhibitors for their drugs.  Vertex needs to get itself together though and hope that the new drug that it’s working on for Hep C doesn’t cause problems for them like their current Hep C drug Incivek, which the FDA had to put a black label box warning on due to the fatal skin rashes it causes. Achillion Pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, is living the high life in the Hepatitis C space and seems to be a good value for the long term. Not just because of the opportunity once it gets one of it’s Hep C therapies to market, but also because of the buzz about Achillion being bought out by a big pharma company. Just like Bristol-Meyers bought Inhibitex for $2.5 billion, it wouldn’t surprise me for Achillion to receive tender offers because of how bad all these pharamaceutical companies want to be in the Hepatitis C space.

Fool’s take away lesson

There is some good money to be made in this Hepatitis C space with the right company in mind for long term investors. Just be cautious and know that the FDA can step in at anytime and halt any study that it deems to be dangerous for patients. With that said, some of these biotech companies only have Hepatitis C drugs as their main pipeline and nothing else–indeed, Achillion and Idenix’s whole pipeline is compromised of only Hep C drugs. Therefore one failure may signal future failure for the entire company.  If I had to stick with one of these players, though, I would go with Achillion, as their trials seem to be progressing a lot better than other Hepatitis C drug makers–not to mention the fact that I feel it will soon receive tender offers, and eventually be bought out by some big pharma company. With all that said it seems that Hepatitis C is in play for 2013, you just have to pick the right company for portfolio success.

The article Hepatitis C In Play for 2013? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Terry Chrisomalis.

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