Piper Jaffray Overweight On Salix Pharmaceuticals

Piper Jaffray has an overweight rating and a $47 price target on shares of Salix Pharmaceuticals

. In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray writes, "We attended the American Pain Society meeting, where positive long-term data for Salix/Progenics' Relistor (methylnaltrexone) in chronic pain patients with opioid-induced constipation (

) were presented. Importantly, we believe the drug's adverse event (

) profile is strong, with most AEs (e.g. abdominal pain, nausea) largely a function of greater gastrointestinal motility, not the drug itself. Further, in numerous conversations with physicians, we believe there is real potential for the drug to gain traction in the palliative care setting (i.e., its approved indication). Importantly, significant contribution from Relistor is generally not reflected in Street estimates (or ours), and therefore remains a source of upside for SLXP. We reiterate our Overweight rating and $47 price target." Shares of SLXP lost 13 cents on Friday to close at $38.90, a loss of 0.33%.