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Mis-Reading the Minutes: Arena Approval Follows Sell-Off Based on Advisory Committee Summary

 
• By Michael McCaughan

Arena received great news June 27: approval of the weight loss therapy Belviq with a very clean label and no special marketing restrictions. That was what Wall Street expected—except when investors read the summary of the advisory committee review of the drug published by FDA on June 22.

A funny thing happened to Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. on the way to getting the first new drug approved for weight loss in more than a decade: its stock price fell almost 35% on June 22, just five days before the company announced the approval of lorcaserin (Belviq).

It isn’t unusual for companies facing make-or-break deadlines at FDA to experience considerable volatility, but this was an unusual meltdown....

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