Optimer Pharmaceuticals Shares Dropped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NAS: OPTR) , which develops advanced hospital products such as highly specialized antibiotics, fell as much as 15.7% today on very heavy trading.

So what: Optimer just reported fantastic sales in the third quarter but still saw a disappointingly large net loss. Impatient investors appear disillusioned by the prognosis that bacterial-diarrhea treatment Dificid won't break even for about three years.

Now what: The market drop notwithstanding, two analyst firms reupped their respective buy ratings on Optimer today with price targets between $19 and $20 per share. Clostridium difficile-related diarrhea doesn't present a huge market like prostate cancer does for Dendreon (NAS: DNDN) or multiple sclerosis for Elan (NYS: ELN) , but certainly large enough to sustain a small-cap like Optimer. The company also chose to introduce Dificid in Canada yesterday, perhaps in a failed attempt to distract investors from disappointing earnings with the promise of international growth. Canada is the first non-U.S. market to start a Dificid trial program, and it's a big world out there.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Dendreon. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Elan. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinion, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Check out Anders' holdings and bio, or follow him on Twitter and Google+. We have a disclosure policy.

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