Shares of Amarin, plc (NASDAQ:AMRN) were highly volatile in early afternoon trading Thursday as an article written in the P&T Journal, published on a National Institutes of Health website, stated, “The FDA considers Vascepa to be a new chemical entity.” That article is available here.
AMRN spiked to $12.70 once the link began circulating, but has fallen back to the mid-$11.00 range after some digging revealed that the article was published by a journal that offers perspectives to persons making decisions about drug formularies for hospitals and health insurance companies. The article certainly was written as if NCE status had been granted, faking investors out that the information had in fact come from the FDA. Publication on an official NIH website also helped fan the fire. Based on the information “leaks” that we’ve seen out of AMRN before (see our prior article here), we would not be surprised if this information is, in fact, true. Given the author’s history of publishing the “Pharmaceutical Update” for this journal, one might give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that the information is legitimate.
Once again, we have confirmation that AMRN remains highly sensitive to NCE status for Vascepa from a trading standpoint. We believe the granting or rejection of NCE status could mean as much as a $5.00 swing for the stock, so hedging your position or playing AMRN purely through options makes the most sense at this stage.
