What happened
Shares of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (LXRX 2.60%) were up more than 15% as of 11 a.m. on Tuesday after Express Scripts said it will give certain clients access to Lexicon's drug Inpefa. The healthcare stock is still down more than 39% so far this year.
So what
Lexicon is a biotech company that focuses on more than 100 precise protein targets to find therapies to treat chronic conditions. On Monday, after the markets closed, the company said that pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts was placing Inpefa on its Premier Access and Premier Performance national formularies for Medicare patients, effective Nov. 1. Express Scripts' Medicare patients in certain plans will now be able to get the drug, which was approved in May by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a once-daily oral tablet to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure.
The company made one other announcement Monday that may benefit the stock's price, saying that Bristol-Myers Squibb executive Tom Garner was joining the company as chief commercial officer and senior vice president. Garner, who had been Bristol's senior vice president and was in charge of its U.S. Cardiovascular & Established Brands business unit, said he was excited about helping with Inpefa's launch as well as the potential launch of Lexicon therapy LX9211 to treat diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, which is in phase 2 trials.
Now what
Investors will likely wait to see how much the move helps Inpefa sales. As of the second quarter, the company was just ramping up the drug's launch and reported it had $256.7 million in cash and a net loss of $44.9 million. Inpefa is the first FDA-approved dual SGLT1 and SGLT2 inhibitor for the treatment of heart failure.
