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- 2015-5-29
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Lay all the blame for Arrowhead Research's spectacular hepatitis B implosion today at the feet of CEO Chris Anzalone and the rest of the company's management team.
All CEOs of publicly traded companies must manage investor expectations. For CEOs of early, development-stage biotech companies like Arrowhead, making sure Wall Street isn't delivered a nasty surprise is absolutely crucial. Credibility lost is very difficult to retrieve. Yet for some inexplicable reason, Anzalone totally botched the job.
For months, Anzalone and his team knew ARC-520 dosed at 1 mg/kg and 2 mg/kg yielded 0.2-log and 0.3-log reductions in hepatitis B viral load. Publicly and privately, however, Arrowhead executives led investors to believe that ARC-520 was more potent, achieving viral load reductions in the range of 0.7 log or higher.
Arrowhead could have been honest with investors about ARC-520's mediocre performance at the two lowest doses. The company could have told investors, "We're not where we want to be with ARC-520 dosing and viral load reductions yet, but we think we can get there soon at higher doses and here's why."
If Arrowhead had played fair and conservatively earlier this year, perhaps the stock price might not have reached $26 in March like it did. Maybe the company's valuation bump would have been more modest. But I'm also more certain Arrowhead wouldn't trade at a year low like it is now because investors were misled and are now pissed off.
I asked Arrowhead management to explain their actions but received no response. |
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