Dallas, Texas 10/16/2013 (Financialstrend) – VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) shares had ended trading session on October 14 at $10.5 per share. When trading resumed on October 15, the shares of the stock started to slide below start price of Tuesday. The weakness in the stock can be traced back to a SEC filing that Vivus had filed earlier in the day. The mandatory filings included a management presentation which had called out revenue numbers from its drug Qsymia which was made commercially available since July. The sell off is being ascribed to the initial revenue numbers from Qsymia not adding up to the estimates that analyst had been expecting as revenue from this drug.
Other key highlights from the management presentation were as follows. To provide direction to the company’s growth efforts a new CEO in the form of Seth Fischer has been brought in place. It also announced that STENDRA deal was announced on October 11. As part of the licensing deal with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Vivus has gained development and commercial rights on the drug which is used to treat erectile dysfunction in U.S and Canada. The management also highlighted its plan of action to file for regulatory approvals for introducing Qsymia in Europe. The presentation also talked about the fast adoption of their Qsymia drug by doctors. Management highlighted the close to 33% sequential increase in prescription number to hit a high of 108,000 prescriptions during the third quarter period.
In spite of the long term growth path highlighted in the presentation, the stock continued to lose market value through the trading session. At current valuations, the drug maker has a market cap of $1.06 billion. Over the past 12 months trailing period, the drug maker had accumulated net loss of $206 million. The stock had shed close to 1.22% during trading last week.