Schering Plough Gets Analyst Plug
On Monday, drug maker Schering Plough (SGP) jumped almost 5 percent, to $19.33, for its biggest gain this year.The maker of cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin was raised to a neutral by Banc of America analyst Chris Schott, who stated that Vytorin sales are blowing away firm expectations.
You'll remember that we were all over Schering way before any BofA analyst was:
Schering is a new beast. Under the new stewardship of Fred Hassan, the drug company has been making a quiet but impressive turnaround. Zetia, the cholesterol-control medicine that Schering-Plough developed in its joint venture with Merck (MRK), has been a spectacular success. The drug has a novel mechanism of action that inhibits the absorption of cholesterol in the digestive tract. Moreover, Schering recently signed an agreement with research behemoth Bayer (BAY) to market Bayer’s pharma product line in the US.If Schering can weed out its manufacturing inefficiencies and bolster its (Intron) Hepatitis C franchise, we see this stock hitting $25 inside the next 6 months.
Financial health is stable -- the company has $2B in net cash...May we add that we're big fans of Schering CEO Fred Hassan? A seasoned veteran, Hassan previously played a key role in Sandoz Pharmaceuticals’ sale to Novartis (NVS), as well as Pharmacia Upjohn’s to Pfizer (PFE)....
It wouldn't hurt to see the Board do something about Hassan's bloated annual compensation ($1.5M base salary). In a perfect world, Hassan would get his pot of gold post-turnaround.
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