Collaboration Changes, Public Offering Temporarily Weaken Idenix Shares

Idenix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IDIX) announced Tuesday morning that the company will be restructuring its partnership strategy with Novartis (NYSE:NVS). The announcement nullifies licensing of Tyzeka (IDIX’s only commercialized product) to Novartis, and Idenix will no longer receive milestone or royalty payments on the HBV treatment. Idenix has agreed to pay Novartis a royalty based on product sales of Idenix’s future hepatitis C drugs, unless used in combination with drugs from Novartis. The agreement also gives NVS the option to conduct trials evaluating any of Idenix’s and Novartis’ HCV drug candidates in combination. (more…)