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VIVUS, Inc.

  • Why This Obesity Drug Is the Sector's Best Bet

    By Mohsin Saeed - May 24, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    Editor's Note: The original article incorrectly stated Schedule IV drugs are the second-most-restrictive. This version has been corrected and Motley Fool apologizes for the oversight.

    The obesity drug space is becoming increasingly complex and hard to predict. After months of waiting patiently, Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA) finally got a DEA schedule for its star drug Belviq in May, which could clear up the primary obstacle to Belviq’s availability more »

  • Arena's Marketing Partner Eisai Projects Sales To 4 Million Obese Patients By 2016

    By Joseph Dedvukaj - May 17, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, VVUS

    Arena (Nasdaq: ARNA) and Eisai have an accurate picture of the potential value of Belviq by doing early stage market research. Eisai is in the top 25 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Eisai is a successful leading pharmaceutical company by both demonstrating an understanding of the importance of marketing and cleverly integrating it with the science. In accordance with the marketing agreement between the two companies, Eisai did the more »

  • Will Obesity Drugs Gain Soon?

    By Brandy Betz - May 14, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, NVO, OREX, VVUS

    Things are beginning to look slightly up for obesity drugmaker Vivus (NASDAQ: VVUS) -- mere weeks before a competing drug from Arena (NASDAQ: ARNA) hits the market.

    Vivus shares soared nearly 10% last Wednesday despite lackluster first quarter results. That’s because CEO Leland Wilson expressed an interest in finding a big pharma partner for the faltering Qsymia, which had a meager sales of $4.1 million in the quarter and more »

  • Shorting Arena Is Not a Good Idea Now

    By Shas Dey - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, VVUS

    Short interest in Arena (NASDAQ: ARNA) is 28.81% of its float. Shorts have 16.8 days to square their positions, and some of them are already covering, as shown by the 2.91% decrease in short interest. There is a short interest of 62.30 million shares, down from 64.17 million. The short interest ratio is 16.8 days, meaning that based on the average daily trading volume more »

  • Looking at Arena Following Sell-Off

    By Chris Lau - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    A sharp drop in Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA) followed after the company reported quarterly earnings and a withdrawal of its Marketing Authorization Application (“MAA”) in the EU. Arena traded recently at around $8.00. Similar to Vivus (NASDAQ: VVUS), investor interest in the drug maker for obesity is unconvincing. Arena bounced back recently after the DEA approved the scheduling of Belviq. Now that "lorcaserin is subject to the CSA and more »

  • Improving Prospects of This Obesity Bet

    By Mohsin Saeed - May 6, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    VIVUS' (NASDAQ: VVUS) Qsymia has not received the unconditional consumer love that investors were hoping. The initial sales data has been pretty slim, which has forced the company to lower prices more than once. VIVUS is trying to gain some sales momentum before its primary competitor, Belviq, from Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA) hits stores.

    Orexigen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OREX) is still trying to get the FDA to sign off on Contrave more »

  • Have Drugmakers Found the Panacea for Obesity? (Part I)

    By Shas Dey - April 29, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    After a gap of several years, there seems to be a candidate in the obesity drug market that could turn out to be a long-term winner. Each drug in the market has its merits and demerits, but there is one with relatively strong market potential, in my opinion. It finally seems like obesity has become a surmountable challenge.

    The past record of obesity drugs has not been great. Going by more »

  • Have Drugmakers Found the Panacea for Obesity? (Part II)

    By Shas Dey - April 29, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, VVUS

    In the previous part of this article, I discussed the potential obesity market and some promising drugs on the scene. In this part, I am going to focus on how Arena (NASDAQ: ARNA) and its Belviq are poised to grab a large part of this market compared to peers.

    VIVUS’ Qsymia – problems with the medication and the company’s strategy

    Since phentermine and topiramate’s combination had proved to be more »

  • Exciting Catalysts Approaching for This Bet

    By Mohsin Saeed - April 27, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    The obesity stocks are perhaps some of the most discussed and followed stocks in the entire biotechnology sector. The two drugs to receive FDA approval so far are Qsymia from VIVUS (NASDAQ: VVUS) and Belviq from Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA). The third competitor, Orexigen (NASDAQ: OREX) is still trying to get the FDA to sign off on their obesity treatment Contrave. The drug is undergoing more tests to determine its more »

  • Anti-Obesity Stocks Are Attractively Priced

    By Ishtiaq Ahmed - April 23, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    The obesity market was one of the most attractive sectors a year ago, and the shares of companies developing anti-obesity drugs were the pharmaceutical sector's hottest properties. However, it looks like investors hugely overvalued the market for anti-obesity drugs, resulting in tepid performance of these stocks.

    Only one company, Vivus (NASDAQ: VVUS) has been able to market its drug. However, Vivus’ drug, Qsymia, was approved with a long list more »

  • Stocks to Know for the Obesity Epidemic

    By Salvatore "Sam" Mattera - April 19, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, HLF, NTRI, VVUS, WTW

    Obesity rates have been steadily growing in the developed world, in particular in the US, which has the world’s highest rate of obesity. Most recently, the obesity epidemic prompted a controversial legal battle over the sale of sugary drinks in New York City.

    But as is the nature of capitalism, numerous companies have sprung up to fight back. Investors interested in the space should be aware of a few more »

  • This anti-obesity drug will give you fat returns!

    By Manoj Kochar - April 18, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    Obesity threatens the overall wellbeing of patients and is a major public health concern and the root cause of many of the world’s most widespread diseases including Type II diabetes and heart disease. 1/3 of American’s are facing obesity which prompted a controversial legal battle over the sale of sugary drinks in New York City. With a large part of the world fighting with obesity, a low more »

  • Billionaire Richard Chilton’s Small Cap Picks

    By Meena Krishnamsetty - April 11, 2013 | Tickers: ATML, DIN, ENTG, FHN, VVUS

    According to our research, the most popular small cap stocks (those with market capitalizations between $1 billion and $5 billion) among hedge funds outperform the S&P 500 by an average of 18 percentage points per year. We think that this is because small cap stocks are less widely followed by investors, including institutional investors such as mutual funds; when a hedge fund team looks at such a stock then more »

  • Is There Any Potential Left in Arena Pharmaceuticals?

    By Cagdas Ozcan - April 8, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, VVUS

    Those who are following Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA) can't help to keep an eye on Vivus (NASDAQ: VVUS). After all, Vivus made the first jump into the anti-obesity market when it first launched Qsymia. Qsymia is a breakthrough medication for chronic obesity, the first ever in the U.S. after more than a decade.

    Arena, on the other hand, is poised to launch Belviq, also an anti-obesity drug, which more »

  • Stocks to Know for the Obesity Epidemic

    By Salvatore "Sam" Mattera - April 6, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, HLF, NTRI, VVUS, WTW

    Obesity rates have been steadily growing in the developed world, in particular in the US, which has the world’s highest rate of obesity. Most recently, the obesity epidemic prompted a controversial legal battle over the sale of sugary drinks in New York City.

    But as is the nature of capitalism, numerous companies have sprung up to fight back. Investors interested in the space should be aware of a few more »

  • Stocks to Know for the Obesity Epidemic

    By Salvatore "Sam" Mattera - April 6, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, HLF, NTRI, VVUS, WTW

    Obesity rates have been steadily growing in the developed world, in particular in the US, which has the world’s highest rate of obesity. Most recently, the obesity epidemic prompted a controversial legal battle over the sale of sugary drinks in New York City.

    But as is the nature of capitalism, numerous companies have sprung up to fight back. Investors interested in the space should be aware of a few more »

  • Arena - Is The Recent Dip A Good Time To Buy?

    By Shas Dey - April 5, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, VVUS

    Despite announcing a probable entry into Mexico of Belviq (lorcaserin), shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA) went down 2.31% in trading in a single day recently. Year-to-date, the stock has gone down more than 9%, and 23.25% from this year's high achieved in mid-January 2013.

    We have been forever waiting for the regulatory processes to get over with so they can launch the first drug in their more »

  • Stocks to Know for the Obesity Epidemic

    By Salvatore "Sam" Mattera - April 4, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, HLF, NTRI, VVUS, WTW

    Obesity rates have been steadily growing in the developed world, in particular in the US, which has the world’s highest rate of obesity. Most recently, the obesity epidemic prompted a controversial legal battle over the sale of sugary drinks in New York City.

    But as is the nature of capitalism, numerous companies have sprung up to fight back. Investors interested in the space should be aware of a few more »

  • Which Obesity Drug Will Boost Your Portfolio?

    By Terry Chrisomalis - March 28, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, OREX, VVUS

    In 2012, the FDA approved two obesity drugs for use in the United States. One drug, named "Belviq", is from Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA) and the other, "Qsymia", is from VIVUS (NASDAQ: VVUS). There is another drug, named "Contrave", from a company known as  Orexigen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OREX) but has not been approved yet by the FDA. 

    Arena's Belviq

    On June 27, U.S. regulators approved Belviq for use more »

  • This Investment Just Became More Attractive

    By Mohsin Saeed - March 15, 2013 | Tickers: ARNA, VVUS

    The FDA approval of obesity drugs has been received with a lot of investor enthusiasm. The FDA has thus far approved two drugs: Qsymia from Vivus (NASDAQ: VVUS) and Belviq from Arena (NASDAQ: ARNA). The share prices of these companies have seen a lot of growth initially, but the enthusiasm has since died down somewhat. Belviq is still in the process of being launched into the market. Arena is partnering more »

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