Shares of Amarin Corporation (NASDAQ:AMRN) moved higher on Thursday after a webpage suggesting ‘Vascepa’ as the brand name for AMR101 – a prescription fish oil formulation for high triglycerides – was leaked on the web. When that happened, the page was quickly taken down.
The link pointed to http://uat.amarin.strategicedge.com/vascepa/index.html, a page hosted on strategicedge.com, which belongs to a ‘Healthcare communications and marketing company’. According to their ‘about’ page, Strategic Edge Communications (abbreviated as ‘SEC’, ironically) has been around for at least a decade and online for at least 5 years. A call to the company for a comment on this matter went unanswered. “Everyone is currently busy,” said their receptionist.
Notwithstanding, the market has taken this occasion as a hint that AMR101 will gain FDA approval later this month. Momentum is expected to remain positive heading into the FDA’s decision date of July 26th.
Below is a screenshot of the page that appeared on strategicedge.com, before it vanished.
UPDATE: Amarin filed a form with the SEC pertaining to this matter this afternoon:
“On July 19, 2012, information related to AMR101, Amarin Corporation plc’s (“Amarin”) lead product candidate, and its pending regulatory review with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) was inadvertently published through a draft website that is under design by third parties on behalf of Amarin”.
