Alexza Pharmaceuticals (ALXA) provided an update on the pipeline earlier this week. Management has selected AZ-007 as the next candidate to move forward. AZ-007 (Staccato zaleplon) will be developed for a potential middle-of-the-night dosing for nocturnal awakenings associated with insomnia.
It’s a very attractive market opportunity in our view, and one that AZ-007 could be uniquely positioned to gain market share in if approved. Alexza’s lead candidate, AZ-004 remains under U.S. FDA review with an action date schedule for October 11, 2010. We are big fans of the Staccato platform, and we believe that AZ-004 has the right combination of key attributes for the treatment of acute agitation that makes the product a $500 million opportunity.
We expect approval in October 2010. We believe the market is under-valuing the story here and believe $5 per share, a market cap of $250 million, more fairly represents the company.Zacks Investment Research
