BioCryst Updates the Obvious: BioBuzz

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (TheStreet) -- Newsflash! The sun rose this morning. And BioCryst Pharmaceuticals(BCRX Quote) responded to the government's RFP for a small stockpile of the experimental flu drug peramivir.

Which of these has greater news value? It's close, but I'm going with the sun.

I kid, of course. Neither has much news value. But I'm sure glad BioCryst let investors know Wednesday night that the company responded in writing to the government's peramivir request. I was getting worried BioCryst might just blow off this chance to sell a disappointingly small amount of peramivir (1,000 to 40,000 doses) to Uncle Sam.

The value of BioCryst shares have dropped 18% since the company announced receipt of the government's request for proposal on Sept. 21. The stock closed Wednesday at $8.24 but rallied 10% in the after-hours trading session as the BioCryst news hit the tape.

I guess someone hasn't been paying attention.

BioCryst's other "news" Wednesday was the start of the peramivir phase III clinical trials, funded again by the U.S. government. Given that the company had previously announced receipt of the money to run these studies and its intent to start them as soon as possible, Wednesday's update wasn't much of one.

On a more serious note, has anyone taken a look at the inclusion and exclusion criteria for patients enrolling in the second of the two phase III peramivir studies? Two restrictive criteria, in particular, caught my eye:

In order to enroll in this study, patients can't be sick with flu for more than 72 hours before needing to be hospitalized and therefore eligible to receive intravenous peramivir.