Increased Potency Increases Stock Price

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What's better than a glass of red wine? Well, my vote would be for two glasses of red wine. However, when you're trying to use a drug that would require a patient to drink 1,000 bottles of wine to get the proper dose, the correct answer is: a more potent drug.

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SIRT) published an article this week in Nature that characterized its discovery of drugs that are 1,000 times more potent than resveratrol, the compound found in red wine that makes mice live longer and lowers blood sugar levels in obese mice. Even with the increased potency, the drugs appear to be less potent than GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE: GSK) diabetes drug, Avandia.

Sirtris plans to get the drugs into clinical trials in the first half of next year, presumably because it's still working on preclinical safety studies.

Sirtris is currently testing SRT501, its proprietary formulation of resveratrol, in combination with metformin, the general version of Bristol-Myers Squibb's (NYSE: BMY) Glucophage, in type 2 diabetes patients. Results from the phase I-B trial should be available by early next year, but with more potent compounds now available, I wouldn't be surprised if SRT501 doesn't have a long life -- ironic, don't you think?

While Sirtris' science is exciting, I'm having trouble getting excited about its valuation. Even with the euphoria around the announcement subsiding, as seen by today's 15% drop in the stock price, the stock still looks a little overpriced for a company with one drug in phase 2 trials. It's going to be a while before Sirtris has a drug on the market, so investors would be well advised to not rush into buying it at these prices. In the meantime, check out other developmental stage drug companies with drugs farther along or companies with diabetes drugs already on the market, such as Amylin Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AMLN) or Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY).

More Foolishness to lower your blood sugar levels:

• A Fountain of Youth?
• Phase 2 Data to Sink Your Teeth Into
• The Exubera Winner
• Good News From Amylin Isn't Good Enough