Acorda Therapeutics stock sinks to 13-year low

Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ACOR) stock tumbled to a 13-year low of $10.02 on Wednesday as investors remained concerned about the company’s future ahead of its first-quarter earnings results. In addition, concerns have been mounting with regard to the generation of substantial revenue from Parkinson’s disease (PD) drug, Inbrija.

In late December 2018, the company has got a huge boost when the US Food and Drug Administration approved Inbrija drug. The product has been used to treat OFF periods in patients suffering from Parkinson’s and receiving a carbidopa/levodopa regimen. The drug was officially launched in the US in February 2019 while is under review in the European Union.

The company had expected Inbrija’s market opportunity to exceed $800 million in the United States as more than 350,000 people are suffering OFF periods related to Parkinson’s disease. Acorda is yet to generate substantial revenues from Inbrija as the drug was launched during the first quarter of 2019.

Along with this, problems have been mounting for Acorda as sales of its key multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, Ampyra, have been falling mainly due to stiff competition from Mylan’s (NASDAQ: MYL) authorized generic version. Majority of Acorda’s net product revenues came from Ampyra and the company could see lower revenue at least in the near term due to declining sales.

The company is scheduled to report its earnings results for the first quarter of 2019 on Thursday before the market opens. Analysts expect Acorda Therapeutics to report a loss of $0.94 per share on revenue of $33.04 million for the first quarter. In comparison, during the previous year quarter, the company posted a profit of $0.14 per share on revenue of $106.17 million.

Acorda Therapeutics has surprised investors by beating analysts’ expectations in three out of the past four quarters. It is expected that the company will post upbeat results for the first quarter. Majority of the analysts recommended a “hold” rating while expecting the stock to reach $20.11 per share in the next 52 weeks.

Also read: CVS Health Q1 earnings results

For the fourth quarter, Acorda swung to a profit from a loss last year helped by lower costs and expenses as well as higher income taxes benefit. Revenue plunged by 63% as Ampyra lost its exclusivity in September 2018 and generics entered the market. The company has planned to apply the Arcus platform to develop therapies for additional indications, including acute migraine.

The company does not provide revenue guidance for Ampyra due to the unpredictable trajectory of revenue decline given the entrance of generics. Research and development expenses for the full year 2019 was predicted to be in the range of $70 million to $80 million and selling, general & administrative expenses were anticipated to be in the range of $200 million to $210 million.

Shares of Acorda Therapeutics opened lower on Wednesday and is trading in the red territory. The stock has fallen over 55% in the past year and over 38% in the past three months.

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