Why Is The Medicines Company Stock Falling? This Analyst May Have An Answer

Shares of The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO) tumbled more than 5 percent Wednesday after the company reported its second-quarter results before the market opened.

Shares opened the day for trading at $32.77 and quickly moved lower to $31.08 before slightly rebounding.

Umer Raffat, Evercore ISI's specialty pharmaceutical senior analyst, commented that the company's earnings report didn't contain "a whole lot," but the post earnings conference call "didn't go over so well."

"The feedback from the call was a) they didn't say very much, and b) they were being ‘cagey' and ‘weird' on the call," Raffat said.

More Details On The Call

Raffat also added that management appeared to "not answer any of the questions" that were directed towards them by analysts participating in the call. He also suggested that management "didn't sound very confident" heading into the PCSK9 read-out at the end of August, which is an open-label trial.

Raffat continued that he spoke with Medicines Company's CEO Clive Meanwell following the conference call and offered four key takeaways:

• 1) Meanwell is "as confident as ever" on the PCSK9 program
• 2) The analyst asked Meanwell if he is "as confident as ever on the program... or on the fact that you have a differentiated asset?" The executive's response was that PCSK9 is being developed as a "mean to a program."
• 3) Meanwell was asked if the company has delivered the dose equivalent of 10mg per kilogram in the trial. The analyst said: "He didn't answer that directly, but what he did say was they do believe that they delivered a dose that enables them to show differentiation."
• 4) The analyst asked Meanwell if he is "open" to spinning PCSK9 and ApoaA-I Milano into a separate company, and the executive answered that he is "open to the idea."

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