CHICAGO, June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog includeEli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), Teva (NYSE:TEVA), Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq:SLXP), Santarus, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNTS) and Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (NYSE:TKC).
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Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:
Lilly's Alimta Disappoints
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) recently presented disappointing results on its cancer drug, Alimta (pemetrexed), at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Eli Lilly said that Alimta failed to achieve the primary endpoint in the randomized, open-label phase III superiority study – PRONOUNCE. The study was conducted in patients suffering from advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The study compared Alimta plus carboplatin to a triplet regimen consisting of Taxol (paclitaxel), carboplatin and Avastin (bevacizumab).
The Alimta regimen failed to show superiority in improving progression-free survival without grade four adverse events (G4PFS). As far as secondary endpoints like progression-free survival, overall survival, overall response rate and disease control rate were concerned Eli Lilly said that there was no major difference between the treatment arms. No unknown toxicity issues were observed in the study.
The failure to show superiority is disappointing news for Eli Lilly. The company is currently working on protecting Alimta from generic competition from companies like Teva (NYSE:TEVA) and APP Pharmaceuticals.
Alimta is protected by a compound patent that is set to expire in 2017 (including pediatric exclusivity) and a vitamin dosage regimen patent that will expire in 2022 (including pediatric exclusivity). Eli Lilly is currently seeking rulings in favor of the vitamin dosage regimen patent. A trial is slated to commence in August this year.
Alimta is a key product in Eli Lilly's portfolio. The product, which posted sales of $2.6 billion in 2012, accounted for 11% of total revenues. With Eli Lilly facing generic competition for Zyprexa and products like Cymbalta and Evista slated to lose patent protection in late 2013 and 2014, respectively, a favorable ruling in the vitamin dosage regimen patent case would give the company an additional 5 years of protection.
Eli Lilly currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Companies like Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq:SLXP) and Santarus, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNTS) currently look attractive with both being Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks.
Political Unrest Hits Turkcell
Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (NYSE:TKC), the largest wireless communications service provider of Turkey, is facing the brunt of the recent socio-political turmoil in the country. The stock price of this Turkish GSM network operator, which offers mobile voice, broadband and other added services dropped nearly 13% in the last week. Notably, this sharp decrease in stock price is not due to financial or operational reasons but is solely related to the political turbulence in Turkey.
Recently, a large and diverse section of the Turkish population was perturbed by certain decisions taken by the ruling Justice and Development Party, headed by the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The protesters claimed that Erdogan has become more authoritative, aggressively following capitalism to favor its closest allies and trying to increase Islamist influence on the predominantly secular culture of Turkey.
On the other hand, Erdogan's government has taken several steps, which has helped Turkey to improve several economic fundamentals. These include soaring gross domestic product, huge influx of foreign direct investments and reasonable control of inflation and unemployment. However, the ongoing socio-cultural conflict may more than offset positive economic developments.
Turkcell is a major business organization in Turkey. As of Mar 31, 2013, the company had 34.9 million subscribers in Turkey. The company offers both post-paid and prepaid wireless services and became one of the first among the global operators to implement 2.5 G HSPA+ network. Turkcell also operates in nine countries in Asia and Europe through various wholly owned or partially owned subsidiaries.
In Apr 2013, Turkcell collaborated with the Turkish Athletics and Swimming Federation to strengthen Government of Turkey's bid for 2020 Olympics Game. We remain concerned that if the present scenario of political unrest becomes more intense and volatile, then Turkey may miss the 2020 Olympics bid, which otherwise could act as a near-term growth catalyst for Turkcell.
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