No Longer A Buy: Roth Capital Downgrades Keryx Biopharma, Slashes Price Target To $6

In a report published Monday, Roth Capital analyst Joseph Pantginis downgraded the rating on Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: KERX) from Buy to Neutral, while reducing the price target from $11 to $6 in view of the strong Auryxia headwinds.

Keryx reported its 2Q15 EPS and revenue at ($0.26) and $2.51 million, respectively. The company had $131.3 million in cash at the end of the quarter.

Pantginis pointed out that the company was now in a major "show me" phase with respect to Auryxia achieving meaningful prescription fraction in the back half of this year. The company's current prescription levels were not "in-line with our pre launch estimates of Auryxia sales," Pantginis added.

The company needed to address several issues, including achieving 80 percent coverage, reaching and educating the target prescribers, persuading the existing ones to switch over to Auryxia, besides persuading increased prescriptions.

The company was relying on samples to educate physicians and patients, Pantginis said, while adding, "Conversion rate from samples to prescription has been 10%, which is disappointing given our view of Auryxia's differentiated profile."

In the report Roth Capital noted that although the Keryx's profile was being "received well" by physicians, the company was growing its salesforce size by 50 percent, facing reimbursement challenges and also combating a lengthy selling cycle.