Deerfield Management Trims Holding In Antares Pharma Inc (ATRS) Just Before Disastrous Setback

Let’s check out two of Deerfield’s other micro-cap healthcare picks, beginning with NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM), in which Deerfield added some 261,600 shares of during the first three months to take the holding to 5.07 million shares valued at $87.76 million. The stake represents 8% of the company’s outstanding shares and 2.84% of the fund’s portfolio value. The stock of the $969.44 million medical device company is down by more than 14% year-to-date. In its financial results for the first quarter NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM) beat estimates for both the top and bottom lines. While the critical care revenue increased by 9%, home revenue climbed by 19%. The company was also helped by currency movements, and gross margins for System One stood at 50%. After Deerfield, Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital is the largest stockholder of Antares Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:ATRS) within our database, owning 4.7 million shares valued at $12.74 million.

During the first quarter, Deerfield hiked its stake in Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc (NASDAQ:AAVL) by  31% to 2.12 million shares valued at $85.80 million. The stake constitutes 8.29% of the company’s outstanding shares. Just yesterday the stock of the $992.56 million clinical-stage biotechnology company crashed and burned as it slumped more than 50%. The trigger event involved Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc (NASDAQ:AAVL)’s drug to treat wet AMD, AVA-101, which even though it met its primary endpoint, seemed to have thickened the retinas of patients receiving the treatment as compared to the control group. Another fund with whom the news didn’t sit well is Anders Hove and Bbong Koh‘s VHCP Management, as it owned about 1.38 million shares of Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc (NASDAQ:AAVL) valued at $56.03 million on March 31.

Disclosure: None