Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Arrowhead Research is a small company that uses RNA technologies to develop drugs. The analysts who follow it seem universally enthusiastic. What is your opinion? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Arrowhead Research, $13.43, symbol ARWR, on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 51.9 million; Market cap: $697.0 million; www.arrowheadresearch.com), is a biopharmaceutical firm that focuses on RNAi therapeutics. RNAi therapeutics has the potential to treat a number of human diseases by “silencing” disease-causing genes. The discoverers of RNAi, a gene-silencing mechanism that all cells use, were awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in the physiology-or-medicine category. Arrowhead’s shares have been volatile this year. They jumped as high as $27.63 in early April after the company said that it had begun a Phase 2A study involving its most promising drug candidate, hepatitis B treatment ARC-520. However, the stock fell sharply later in April after drug giant Novartis announced that it was ending a significant portion of its RNAi research efforts in Boston. That’s because Novartis concluded that ongoing challenges with formulation and delivery of RNAi therapeutics make it less promising than other research programs. As well, Novartis believes the current range of conditions suitable for RNAi is too…