What happened
The morning after a big party is nowhere nearly as much fun as the event itself. A big example of this dynamic was Impel NeuroPharma (IMPL) stock, which saw a big price pop Friday and early on Tuesday before pulling back considerably. From a gain of as much as 17% on the day, the shares were only marginally higher in late afternoon trading.
So what
For Impel NeuroPharma, Friday was the kind of day all biotech investors dream about. That morning the company received its first-ever Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the nasal spray migraine treatment Trudhesa. This not only puts it on the map as a commercial-stage operator; it provides the company with its first source of revenue.
Image source: Getty Images.
So it's little wonder that the small clutch of analysts tracking Impel NeuroPharma fell over themselves boosting their price targets on the stock. On Friday, Wedbush's Laura Chico upped hers to $31 per share from $25, while Cowen's Ken Cacciatore made an even mightier lift to $55 from his preceding $35. Both analysts are maintaining what are effectively buy recommendations on the shares.
Now what
Like a partygoer waking to a queasy hangover, though, reality seems to be quickly setting in for Impel NeuroPharma investors. It's one thing to successfully develop a drug; it's quite another to devise marketing effective enough for doctors to prescribe it and patients to take it. This might be particularly challenging in the case of Trudhesa, as it won't be the only migraine-fighting nasal spray on the market.
