Amylin Pharmaceuticals Continues to Soar in Wake of Bydureon Approval

Last Friday, the FDA finally approved Bydureon, a once-weekly diabetes shot developed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMLN) and Alkermes PLC (NASDAQ: ALKS). Bydureon is a long-acting form of Byetta, a twice-daily injection developed by Amylin and Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) in a partnership which was dissolved last year. The drug had been rejected twice before, which caused AMLN to lose nearly half of its market value in October 2010. Bydureon is expected to be available in U.S. pharmacies this month. In the wake of the FDA's decision, AMLN shares have seen persistent bullish activity this week and are up a little more than 41% over the last five trading days. The stock gapped higher on Monday morning and traded in the mid to low $14 range throughout Monday and Tuesday's trading session. On Wednesday, AMLN broke out of this range and has been moving aggressively higher once again, with the stock surging more than 9% on Wednesday and adding better than 8% by mid-day on Thursday. At last check, AMLN shares were trading in the $16.80 range. The activity in the share price this week has been accompanied by very heavy volume as investors place bets on Amylin's future prospects in the wake of Bydureon's long awaited FDA approval. Despite the good news, there is a wide range of opinions on Wall Street regarding the stock, which suggests that the name will remain volatile going forward. Of particular concern is Amylin's ability to successfully market Bydureon, which could generate as much as $2 billion in annual sales by the end of the decade, according to some analysts. Originally, the partnership between Eli Lilly (LLY) and Amylin (AMLN), which can be traced back to 1999, called for the two companies to market the drug jointly in the United ...

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