Dyax Gains After Analyst Starts Coverage At 'Buy'

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Dyax Corp. jumped Thursday after a ThinkEquity analyst started coverage at "Buy," saying the biopharmaceutical company's key drug candidate will likely be approved by the end of the year and launched early in 2010.

Analyst Jason Kolbert also set a $6 price target on Dyax shares. That implies a gain of nearly 63 percent from Wednesday's closing price. In afternoon trading Thursday, Dyax shares rose 29 cents, or 7.9 percent, to $3.98.

Dyax is trying to gain Food and Drug Administration approval of DX-88, which is meant to treat hereditary angioedema, a potentially fatal genetic disorder involving a deficiency of a certain type of protein in blood plasma.

A panel of FDA experts recommended the treatment be approved in February, but the regulator asked for more information in March. In early June, Dyax said the FDA had accepted its response letter to the request. Dyax said then the FDA expects to make a decision on DX-88 by Dec. 1.

"We believe that this molecule has now been highly vetted, and we do not expect any new surprises," wrote Kolbert in a research note. He expects FDA approval by the end of this year.