Verona Pharma plc (VRNA): Jim Cramer Approves The Merck Acquisition

We recently published 14 Stocks Jim Cramer Discussed As He Talked About Record Bitcoin Price. Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed.

Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) is a small biotechnology company that focuses on respiratory diseases. Its shares rocketed by 20.6% in July after pharma giant Merck announced that it would buy the firm for a $10 billion price tag. However, even before the acquisition, Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA)’s shares were up by a strong 80%. The stock has been helped by improving revenue and shrinking losses, which are good performance indicators for upstart biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Cramer’s comments about Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) covered Merck’s acquisition:

“Yeah, I talked to Rob this morning, really liked this. He thinks he’s got about 50 billion dollars worth of new drugs, which would therefore make it so you should stop worrying about the Keytruda patent expiration in 2028. I am with Rob. I think this COPD is a really important, another important franchise for them the alternative use steroids. And we’ve all be discovering that if you have trouble using steroids, one it becomes less effective over time, and two, the side effects are much worse than people realize. So I think this is a first in class, novel, compound that will make it so. . .I like this acquisition very much.”

A patient in a clinic, taking a medication dose from a nebulizer to treat a respiratory disease.

Earlier, the CNBC host had dubbed Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA)’s shares as speculative:

“That stock is a rocket ship. Again, very very speculative, because it loses a lot of money. Does have a couple things in the pipe that people like, but also has a huge amount of insider selling, frankly.”

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.