Labopharm shares jump after FDA approves antidepressant

Shares of Canada's Labopharm jumped after the FDA announced it had approved the company's once-daily antidepressant trazodone after the drug was subjected to a delay.

But CEO James Howard-Tripp tells Reuters that the company's launch date hasn't been set yet. Labopharm is still working on a partnership deal for the therapy, and the CEO declined to say just how long that might take. Labopharm won FDA approval of its combination pain therapy last year.

"We prefer to go down the co-promotion route where we will have more of a role (in the development)," he tells Reuters. "This gives us a much higher degree of control of our own asset, and the financial return is significantly better."

Schaeffer's notes that the company's stock has zoomed up 60 percent in the past 13 weeks, despite analysts being generally lukewarm about its prospects. Of the five analysts who follow the company, two rated it a strong buy, two a hold and one a strong sell.

- here's the Reuters story
- and here's the note from Schaeffer's

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