A Hold recommendation has recently been issued to biopharmaceutical company Ardea Biosciences (RDEA) by Zacks senior healthcare analyst Grant Zeng, CFA. Here's what his latest update had to say:
'Ardea Biosciences is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of anti-infectious, cancer and anti-inflammatory diseases. The company's lead drug candidate is RDEA806, which is under phase I studies for HIV and gout. Another candidate is RDEA119, under preclinical studies for cancer indications.
'We are concerned about the weak pipeline and early stage of development. Competition in the HIV and cancer markets, combined with the cash burn concern, make us believe Ardea's risk/reward is balanced. We initiate our report on Ardea with a Hold rating. Our six month price target is $14.50.
'We are pleased to see Ardea to get into drug research and development business again after the transaction with Valeant in December 2006. Although its two lead candidates RDEA 806 and REDA 119 target rather large HIV and cancer markets, we are concerned about the fierce competition in these two markets.
'Further, both RDEA806 and RDEA119 are still in early stages of development (phase I and preclinical, respectively) and the company's pipeline, as we mentioned before, is weak. We see a balanced reward/risk profile for Ardea at this point, which supports our Hold rating. At our price target of $14.50 per share, the market cap for Ardea is $171 million. We think this is fair to Ardea based on the fundamentals of the company.'
Read the full analyst report on RDEA.
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