Wedbush analyst Duane Nash talks, people listen... Idenix stock rises.

(I wish I had that kind of power. Wedbush analyst Duane Nash recommends Idenix stock. He feels that Idenix's nucleotide inhibitor IDX184 is currently ripe for partnership and cites Pharmasset's partnership with BMS and J&J with PSI-7977 as a prime example of small pharma partnering with Big Pharma to leverage economies of scale on the development and commercialization front.)

Idenix rises as analyst looks to partnerships

NEW YORK

Shares of Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. rose Tuesday after an analyst upgraded the stock, saying the company's experimental hepatitis C drug may become a hot commodity in 2012.

THE SPARK: Wedbush analyst Duane Nash raised his rating on Idenix shares to "Outperform" from "Neutral." Nash said big drugmakers will be interested in the heptatitis drug, now called IDX184. After Idenix reports more data on the drug candidate, he said, it could find a marketing partner or a company interested in acquiring the drug outright. He raised his price target on Idenix shares to $11 from $6.

The company plans to report early results from a mid-stage trial of IDX184 during the first quarter of 2012.

THE BIG PICTURE: Throughout this year, companies like Pharmasset Inc. have been reporting strong clinical trial data for new hepatitis C drugs. Some of those drugs, including Pharmasset's PSI-7977 and Idenix's IDX184, are nucleotide drugs designed to prevent the hepatitis C virus from making copies of itself. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s new hepatitis C drug Incivek also stops the virus from replicating, but it attacks a different part of the virus' genome and is not a nucleotide drug.

Nash said the data will get large pharmaceutical companies interested in nucleotide drugs. However there are not many of them available: Pharmasset already has development partnerships with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Johnson & Johnson, and several other drug companies have similar partnerships.

Nash said only two companies are running clinical trials of a nucleotide drug that is not already partnered: Idenix and Inhibitex Inc.

"Due to the growing likelihood that (nucleotide drugs) will be essential for interferon-free therapy, and combined with the scarcity value of available nucs, we are increasingly optimistic that IDX184 will be partnered or acquired in 2012," Nash wrote.

Idenix spokeswoman Kelly Barry said the company has "multiple ongoing discussions with potential partners."

SHARE ACTION: Shares of the Cambridge, Mass., company picked up 26 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $7 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session, the stock reached a three-year high of $7.38.