Alnylam stock tumbled Friday after the company’s Pfizer (PFE)-rivaling heart disease treatment lagged expectations in a three-and-a-half-year study.
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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) tested its drug, vutrisiran, in patients with ATTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy. In this disease, abnormal protein builds up on the heart, causing damage. After 30 months, vutrisiran recipients were 13.8% less likely to die of any cause. Through 42 months, patients had a 36% reduction in the risk of death.
But investors were looking for a 32% risk reduction after 30 months, William Blair analyst Myles Minter said in a report.
“Objectively, this data appears to be short of the aforementioned investor bar and hence the premarket trading weakness,” he said.
In early trades, Alnylam stock plunged more than 7% to 265.90. Shares have run up 50% this year and have a nearly perfect IBD Digital Relative Strength Rating of 98. This means Alnylam stock ranks in the leading 2% of all stocks when it comes to 12-month performance. The Composite Rating, a measure of fundamental and technical strength, is a strong 96 out of a total 99.
Alnylam Stock: Taking On Pfizer, BridgeBio
Vutrisiran could eventually rival Pfizer’s Vyndaqel, an approved cardiomyopathy treatment that brought in $3.32 billion in sales last year.
The drugs use different mechanisms to tackle the same disease. Vyndaqel works by preventing abnormal protein called amyloid from spreading. It also stabilizes protein levels. Vutrisiran silences the gene responsible for making the protein.
Promisingly, vutrisiran met all 10 primary and secondary goals of the study. But, Minter noted, 39% of patients in the placebo group received treatment with Vyndaqel for a median of 11.3 months before the study. This muddies the results somewhat, making it difficult to compare which drug is superior.
The cardiomyopathy space also continues heating up. BridgeBio Pharma (BBIO) is looking to gain approval in November for a treatment called acoramidis. Shares of the biotech company popped 10.6% to 27.24 after the stock market opened. Pfizer stock was down a small fraction at 28.70.
Minter kept his outperform rating on Alnylam stock.
“We still think vutrisiran is an effective therapy that will be competitive in the growing (TTR cardiomyopathy) market and we would be buyers on Alnylam weakness today,” he said.
Follow Allison Gatlin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @IBD_AGatlin.
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