Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Neurocrine Biosciences: Pandemic Pressures And Few Pipeline Catalysts Continue To Weigh On NBIX

 

About the best thing I can say about Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX) so far for 2021 is that the shares have managed to outperform a weak tape for biotech (the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) is down about 10% versus Neurocrine’s flattish performance), though that comparison looks much worse for NBIX shares over a 12-month period.

I’d previewed some of the drivers of this weakness in earlier pieces – namely challenges to the Ingrezza franchise from the pandemic and a pipeline with few high-probability value-driving readouts. Indeed, Ingrezza has been quite weak, and while blaming that weakness on the pandemic is plausible, it doesn’t fix anything.

I still own these shares and I’m still bullish on the long-term potential, but I’ve cut back my Ingrezza expectations (again). I continue to believe that crinecerfont is an underappreciated asset, but with a pipeline still weighted more toward early-stage assets (there will be several Phase II studies underway by the end of 2021), this is a stock that could take some time to work again.

 

Read the full article at Seeking Alpha: 

Neurocrine Biosciences: Pandemic Pressures And Few Pipeline Catalysts Continue To Weigh On NBIX

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