Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) is expected to deliver several data presentations during the upcoming “Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting”. The presentations would concern an upcoming drug from the company, Iclusig. However, the stock has recently been losing the interest of top investors. Recently, ARIA lost 2 more hedge funds investors, while the number of total hedge funds stakeholders had stood at 29, by the end of September.
Iclusig has already been approved for use within the US, EU, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Israel. As far as the North American market is concerned, the drug is being sold as a Kinsae inhibitor for the treatment of leukemia. Even though the drug has been cleared for use, the patient trials had revealed a number of side effects. This included vascular occlusion in a total of 27% patients treated with Iclusig. Additionally, most of these patients were under 50-years of age. Furthermore, the trials also revealed heart failure in 8% of the patients treated with Iclusig and unknown number of patients with liver failure.
However, despite Ariad’s efforts to market this drug, the company has been losing large investors. Fortunately, there are still a few who place their bets on the stock. Currently, the largest stake in ARIA is held by Sarissa Capital Management and is valued at $75 million. Added to this the analysts at Zacks have awarded the stock a hold rating. Furthermore, the analysts have also awarded the stock a sort term target price of $9.5, with an expected deviation of $1. However, the main reason for the lack of interest from investors could be the fact that the stock had recently been underperforming the S&P 500. Additionally, the SEC has also revealed insider selling activity from the company, conducted on September 28. Ariad’s SVP and Chief IP Counsel, Berstein David, sold 5,000 of his shares in the company.
Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) completed the December 2 trading session with a loss of 1.25% to its stock price. The stock closed trading at a share price of $6.31.