XenoPort, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNPT)
XenoPort, Inc. (XNPT), a biopharmaceutical company announced on Thursday that CEO Ronald W. Barrett has retired and effectively immediately Vincent J. Angotti the Executive VP and COO has been named the new CEO. The company also stated that John G. Freund has been named the Chairman of the Board of Directors. As part of the restructuring process, the company also reported that it will be shifting its main focus to its HORIZANT Extended Release Tablets product. It will terminate development of XP23829 on its own and seek to partner this and other high potential development stage assets.
XenoPort, Inc. New CEO’s Comments
Mr. Angotti stated,
“I am excited by the opportunity to lead the company with our new strategic focus. Since XenoPort’s launch of HORIZANT in mid-2013, we have successfully taken a staged approach to its commercialization. With the recent expansion of our HORIZANT Neuroscience Health Specialist team to 120 representatives in July, I believe we are well positioned to expand our educational efforts and increase access to HORIZANT and thereby meaningfully benefit many more patients.” Business Wire
New Chairman of the Board Comments :
Dr. Freund stated,
“On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Ron for his dedication and many contributions since co-founding XenoPort in 1999, including the discovery, development and approval of HORIZANT. Ron recruited Vince to lead the commercialization of HORIZANT and, together with the management team, they have meaningfully grown HORIZANT sales. The Board is thrilled to welcome Vince to the role of CEO and has confidence he will apply his operational and commercial experience to maximize the value of HORIZANT.” Business Wire
XNPT Technical Analysis
XNPT gapped up in price on Friday to $3.65, up from the prior day’s close of $3.48 which is a 5% increase in price based on news of the company restructuring and the CEO stepping down. Taking a look at the daily chart, we can see the last time the stock traded above this price level was on September 25th when the stock closed at $3.89. Taking a further look back on the daily chart we can see the stock has been on a steep decline dating back to September 11th when the stock was trading at $7.14. The stock dropped all the way to its 52 week lows of $3.35 on September 30th equivalent to a 53% drop in price. As we can see the stock has been very volatile in the past few weeks of trading. The stock does have a relatively low float of 45.45 million shares and traded on heavy volume on Friday, over 8 times the normal daily trading volume. Both of these factors make the stock a good candidate for the gap and go strategy. The stock did reach pre market highs of $3.75 meaning that it only gave back $0.10 at the open. For trading purposes, my entry point would have been the pre market high level of $3.75 looking for a run through $4.00. My stop loss would have been $3.60 fearing anything below that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up.
Company Profile
XenoPort, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing a portfolio of product candidates for the treatment of neurological and other disorders. It offers HORIZANT (gabapentin enacarbil) extended-release tablets for the treatment of moderate-to-severe primary restless legs syndrome in adults and for the management of postherpetic neuralgia in adults. The company is also developing XP23829, a fumaric acid ester compound and a patented prodrug of monomethyl fumarate, which is in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of psoriasis and relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. In addition, it is developing arbaclofen placarbil product that is in Phase III clinical trials used for the treatment of spasticity in multiple sclerosis; and XP21279, a potential treatment for patients with advanced idiopathic Parkinsons disease has completed Phase II clinical trials. The company has a license agreement with Indivior PLC to develop and commercialize pharmaceutical products containing arbaclofen placarbil; license agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc. to develop and commercialize Gabapentin Enacarbil under the Regnite name in Japan; and collaboration agreement with Glaxo Group Limited to develop and commercialize gabapentin enacarbil. XenoPort, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in Santa Clara, California.” Yahoo Finance
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