Immunex Doesn't Deserve to Get Slammed

It's time for investors to let Immunex(IMNX Quote) out of the biotech penalty box.

Shares of the Seattle-based biotech firm have been dogged since March on the very real fears that Immunex has a serious inventory problem. In short, the company wasn't able to manufacture enough of its top-selling rheumatoid arthritis drug, Enbrel, to meet patients' demands for it.

This Enbrel shortfall pinched sales and, coupled with some setbacks in Immunex's drug pipeline, dropped Immunex's shares from about $32 a share in early March to just less than $11 a share by the end of the month. The stock has started to recover only in the five months since, and now trades at about $18 a share.

But Immunex has solved its Enbrel problem, announcing last week that several agreements reached with manufacturing partners will boost Enbrel supplies. To prove its point, the company stepped up with a bullish 2002 sales forecast for the drug of between $900 million and $1.3 billion, well above Wall Street expectations of between $800 million and $850 million. ...