Business Corpus: Esperion Therapeutics Dives — But Test Results 'Strong In This Context'Esperion Therapeutics lost a third of its value Wednesday after its cholesterol drug underperformed bullish expectations in a late-stage study. The post Esperion Therapeutics Dives — But Test Results 'Strong In This Context' appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Esperion Therapeutics (ESPR) lost a third of its value Wednesday after its LDL cholesterol-lowering drug underperformed bullish expectations in a late-stage study.

But Needham analyst Chad Messer called the results strong. Esperion's drug, called bempedoic acid, lowered "bad" LDL cholesterol by an additional 20% in some patients when added to maximally tolerated statin therapy.

"While 20% is at the lower bound of what we have seen in previous data, this was a much larger study," he said in a note. "Data often revert to the mean in large studies, so we actually view 20% as a strong result in this context."

Investors disagreed vehemently. On the stock market today, Esperion crashed 35.1% to close at 45.75.

Bempedoic Acid In Testing

Esperion tested bempedoic acid in 2,230 patients. At 12 weeks, the drug lowered their LDL cholesterol levels by an additional 20% when added to maximally tolerated statin-based therapy.

Patients also experienced a 22% reduction in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, or hsCRP. That protein is an important marker of underlying inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease.

Messer noted that the study enrolled high-risk patients whose only other option would be injectable drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors. Amgen (AMGN) makes one called Repatha and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) with partner Sanofi (SNY) make another dubbed Praluent.

These drugs "cost tens of thousands of dollars a year," he said. "Payers and patients alike have so far been reluctant to adopt these therapies in a significant way. Bempedoic acid is a once-daily pill that we anticipate will be sold for a few hundred dollars a month."

Notably, Regeneron and Sanofi said Tuesday they had struck a deal with Express Scripts (ESRX) to cut the net price of their drug, Praluent, in exchange for simplifying the patient-insurance process. Praluent and Repatha also work to lower "bad" LDL cholesterol.

Messer kept his strong buy rating and 94 price target on Esperion.

Esperion also reported its first-quarter results. Losses of $1.73 per share narrowed from a $1.80 per-share loss in the year-earlier period. But that missed the consensus which projected a per-share loss of $1.56.

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