InterMune Inc. (NASDAQ: ITMN) stock declined on Friday after a journalist posted tweets suggesting
that competitor Boehringer Ingelheim's (BI) nintedanib's ph.III results in IPF are available.
Analyst Brian Abrahams of Wells Fargo contacted Boehringer Ingelheim to ask about the data release
and they said results have not been disclosed.
"We had the opportunity to speak with BI directly, who told us that its data have NOT been released,
and will not be disclosed until the ATS meeting in May (they will not be toplined prior to this)," said
Abrahams.
"We have not been able to contact the journalist, and it is still possible that they received some leaked
information about the study. However, from what we can tell, it appears that the competitor data are not
yet disclosed, and the reports may have been erroneous. We are continuing to follow up on this."
"We continue to like ITMN's reward/risk going into its ph.III ASCEND data, and would use any weakness
on confusion related to competitor data as a buying opportunity," he added.
Wells Fargo has an Outperform rating on InterMune Inc..