ESPR Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. Consolidation (NASDAQ:ESPR)
(NASDAQ:ESPR) Esperion Therapeutics Inc
(NASDAQ:ESPR) Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. peaked out and closed at $48.90, way up from about $10 where it sat last August, but way below its all-time high of $107.51 in spring 2015. Still, ESPR has been on a good run since about January, but especially since June, probably based on positive news coming out on various stages of ongoing clinical trials. ESPR is a pharmaceutical company based in Ann Arbor, MI and dedicated pretty much exclusively to developing non-statin LDL cholesterol drugs with safer profiles and fewer side effects than the statins currently on the market.
THE COMPANY
ESPR Esperion Therapeutics Inc. has an interesting history, having been acquired by Phizer in 2004 for $1.3Bn in order to get sole possession of an experimental statin called ETC-216 and prevent their competitors from obtaining it. Esperion was founded by Dr. Roger Newton, the man responsible for co-discovering the Lipitor molecule, a statin drug and the most prescribed medication in the history of pharmaceuticals. Phizer eventually killed off the research and ESPR was re-acquired by Dr. Newton after he raised the capital to buy the rights to the name and to their other experimental compound, ETC-1002, which is also a novel cholesterol treatment based on the biological properties of bempedoic acid, which is converted to ETC-1002-CoA in the human liver and, through a sequence of reactions, results in the liver’s removal of LDL-C from the blood.
ESPR has pushed bempedoic acid in 18 completed Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical studies and it is currently being evaluated in four other Phase 3 LDL efficacy and safety studies, along with one cardiovascular outcomes trial. Their pipeline consists solely of Bempedoic Acid (once daily pill) and a combination of Bempedoic Acid and Ezetimibe (once daily pill) which itself just began Phase 3 trials.
ESPR stock price has fluctuated greatly in the past 52-week period with a range of $9.40 to $57.38 and earlier in August they announced an underwritten offering of 3,100,000 shares to the public at $49.00 per with the goal of continuing to finance the previously mentioned clinical trials for the two drugs in their pipeline. There’s lots of detailed technical information out there on these trials, but suffice it to say that if any one or a combination of them are unqualified successes, they could be looking at blockbuster status on par with or even bigger than Lipitor and of course a huge uptick in value. Results are somewhat far off, however, with expected announcements after the completion of the studies in Q2 and Q3 2018 and various bridging studies yet to begin. Of note, ESPR’s R&D budget for the first six months of 2017 was $74.1M compared to $19.5M for the same period in 2016.
We think this makes ESPR an intriguing investment. With the FDA having approved an abbreviated regulatory pathway to the bempedoic acid/ezetimibe combination, and a looming New Drug Application anticipated after the studies are concluded in 2018, this stock may take a slight dive in the next few weeks, but rally significantly toward its $107.51 all-time high by the end of 2018.
Whats Next For LBUY (OTC:LBUY) Leafbuyer Technologies Inc. Looking Forward
(OTC:LBUY) Leafbuyer Technologies, Inc. has seen a recent spike in volume which is currently at 363,464 and nearing 3x its previous average. LBUY is a Colorado firm that provides an online database for the U.S. legal and medical cannabis markets. Founded in 2012, their users are able to locate dispensaries by state/city, read reviews of dispensaries, and in some cases find coupons to save money on cannabis purchases.
In addition to their longer upward trend over the past 52 week period, there have been several recent developments that likely contributed to this spike in trading over the past week. In May their stock was granted DTC eligibility, which is a must for any stock’s future growth potential. Most large U.S. broker-dealers and banks are DTC participants – they hold and deposit securities at DTC. Additionally LBUY has made several announcements in the past few months that have garnered them positive publicity. These include the development and launch of a mobile app that mostly mirrors the functionality of the LBUY website, and which is available in the Apple Store and Google Play Store.
In June they added a career-finder portal to their suite of services which makes use of their existing database search tools and reportedly lists hundreds of careers and jobs in the cannabis industry. In May LBUY announced a forward split of 9.25 to 1 which itself led to a momentary spike, but nothing near the current value of $2.94, which even though it’s down from a 1-yr high of $3.61 is nearly 4x the $1 level where it sat for most of 2016 and 2017. This came just before a big announcement that they will be expanding their regional footprint to markets in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan. Most recently on August 22, LBUY issued a press release touting a renewed partnership with the Cannabist, a mainstream and highly regarded (pun intended) marijuana news website subsidiary of The Denver Post. This is meaningful because of the reach of and respect for the Cannabist and especially because there is now a LBUY “Deals Widget” on every page of the Cannabist’s website.
So what does all this mean? We think that the current price may represent a good value and that recent trading levels could indicate a sharp spike in price; but if not the combination of factors discussed before will at least ensure a steady rise toward the $5 range. Whether you’re basing your investment decision on the larger trend toward decriminalization/legalization or on LBUY’s ability to reach its intended market or the strength of its brand and relative lack of competition – or all three – LBUY hasn’t looked more promising than it does now in quite some time.