Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACHN)
Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACHN), a global a biopharmaceutical company yesterday reported their second quarter 2017 financial results.
Achillion reported a second quarter loss of $22.5 million Achillion reported adjusted second quarter earnings of a loss of $0.16 per share which exactly what analysts were expecting.
Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CEO’s Comments
“Our focus in early clinical development with ACH-4471 has been on achieving proof-of-concept via factor D inhibition, and we are pleased to report that we believe we have achieved this goal. The emerging interim results from our phase 2 PNH trial have demonstrated a dose response to treatment with what we believe to be meaningful improvements in LDH, hemoglobin, fatigue score and other markers of response. To date, orally administered ACH-4471 has been well tolerated in this PNH clinical trial with four patients enrolled and treated with ACH-4471, two of whom have now received more than four months of dosing,” commented Milind S. Deshpande, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Achillion. “We believe that inhibition of factor D represents a highly innovative and differentiated mechanism of action with the potential to address multiple diseases of the alternative pathway, including PNH, C3G, IC-MPGN and geographic atrophy, an advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration.” Globe Newswire
ACHN Technical Analysis
ACHN opened trading yesterday at $4.00 which was up from the previous day’s trading close of $3.97. ACHN closed trading yesterday at $4.01 and spiked up after market to $5.12, equivalent to a 28% increase from the closing price. Taking a look at the daily chart we can see the last time ACHN traded above these levels we have to go back to July 5th when it traded at $5.15.
Taking a closer look at the daily chart we can see that before the spike up ACHN had been a trading range in between $3.00 and $5.00 dating back to November 2016. ACHN has a float of 91.43 million shares and traded 1.42 times the normal daily trading volume on Tuesday.
For trading purposes, I would like to see ACHN open trading on Wednesday above $4.75 or the VWAP and if it does I would be looking to take a long position at the bell with a limit order. My stop loss would be $0.15 from my entry position fearing anything more than that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up.
Company Profile
Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes small molecule drug therapies for infectious diseases and immune system disorders in the United States and internationally.
Its drug candidates for treating chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection comprise Odalasvir, a NS5A inhibitor, which has completed Phase IIa clinical trials; ACH-3422, a NS5B nucleotide polymerase inhibitor; and Sovaprevir, a NS3 protease inhibitor that has completed Phase II clinical trial.
The company is also developing ACH-4471, a complement factor D inhibitor, which is in Phase I clinical trial to treat patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and C3G, a disease resulting from alternative pathway over-activation; and other factor D inhibitors.
It has a license and development agreement with Ora, Inc. for the development and commercialization of ACH-702, a drug candidate that is delivered topically or locally; and collaboration arrangement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. to develop and commercialize antiviral drug candidates for treating HCV infection. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut.