Business Corpus: Pfizer Takes On Alnylam, Ionis With Rare Disease TreatmentAlnylam and Ionis toppled Thursday after Dow Jones component Pfizer unveiled strong late-stage results for a competing rare-disease drug. The post Pfizer Takes On Alnylam, Ionis With Rare Disease Treatment appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) toppled Thursday after Dow Jones component Pfizer (PFE) unveiled strong late-stage results for a competing rare-disease drug.

Shares of Alnylam plunged 8.3% to 119.10 at the close, hitting their lowest point since Feb. 9. Ionis stock tumbled to a seven-month low, closing down 4%, at 44.08. Pfizer rose 0.5%, to 35.49.

Evercore analyst Umer Raffat called the Pfizer release "a very rare late-stage pipeline surprise ... especially for Pfizer," in a note to clients. The study hit all its key goals for a use that most investors had begun to think was impossible, he said.

Pfizer studied a drug called tafamidis to treat transthyretin cardiomyopathy, a disease tied to progressive heart failure. The condition belongs to a family of diseases called transthyretin amyloidosis, or ATTR. Alnylam and Ionis are developing drugs for hereditary forms of ATTR.

In the study, patients treated with tafamidis saw a reduction in death and cardiovascular-related hospitalizations compared to a placebo at 30 months. Patients tolerated tafamidis well and there were no new safety issues.

Alnylam At Risk?

Instinet analyst Christopher Marai reiterated his reduce rating on Alnylam stock following Pfizer's news. He has an 86 price target on the stock. He sees "substantial competitive risks that do not appear to be priced into expectations for (Alnylam's drug) patisiran."

Evercore's Raffat expects tafamidis to be 4% accretive to Pfizer's earnings per share. Investors will likely debate whether tafamidis will treat only cardiomyopathy or if it can be extended to the broad ATTR population. He estimates $1 billion in sales for tafamidis in cardiomyopathy alone.

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The post Pfizer Takes On Alnylam, Ionis With Rare Disease Treatment appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.