AMAG Pharma Falls After Analyst Pares Rating

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of AMAG Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell Monday after a Jefferies and Co. analyst downgraded the stock, slashing her expectations for sales of AMAG's iron deficiency treatment Feraheme.

The FDA granted marketing approval for Feraheme on July 1. The drug is used as an iron replacement for patients with chronic kidney disease.

Analyst Eun Yang lowered her rating on AMAG shares to "Hold" from "Buy," and cut her price target to $44 per share from $60. She said Feraheme appears to have only "modest" sales potential among patients on dialysis. That would hurt its sales and delay profitability for AMAG.

Yang expects $74 million in Feraheme sales in 2010, down from her earlier projection of $97 million, and believes that total will rise to $232 million in 2013, down from an earlier estimate of $274 million.

The Lexington, Mass., company's shares lost $1.29, or 3.1 percent, to $39.85 in afternoon trading.