Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Hyperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HPTX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatments for orphan diseases and hepatology, rose as much as 10% after receiving orphan drug exclusivity status for Ravicti from the Food and Drug Administration, and exercising an option to acquire two additional urea cycle drugs from Valeant Pharmaceuticals (BHC 0.35%).
So what: Ravicti, Hyperion's urea cycle disorder drug that was approved in February, will now get a seven-year period of exclusivity in treating the rare disease. This secures Hyperion's revenue stream by making sure competitors won't be able to swoop in a few years from now with similar products.
In addition to this news, Hyperion exercised an option to acquire Buphenyl and Ammonul from Valeant. If Valeant chooses to keep Ammonul (it has 20 days to decide) it must pay Hyperion $13 million. If Valeant chooses to sell the drug, Hyperion owes Valeant $22 million.
Now what: To me it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Ravicti was going to eventually gain orphan drug approval. While this will certainly protect Hyperion's UCD drug, I'm not sure $100 million in peak sales estimates in the U.S. is enough to justify the company's $358 million market value as of this writing. I'll be certainly curious to see what Valeant does with Ammonul, but I don't think it's a big enough game changer to sway my opinion that Hyperion's valuation is a bit frothy.
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