Why Sarepta Therapeutics Shares Popped

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 Sarepta Therapeutics jumped as much as 15% today after research firm Cowen initiated coverage on the biotech company.

So what: Cowen lit a fire under Sarepta today by initiating coverage on the company with a rating of "outperform." The move comes just two weeks after the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference where Sarepta laid out its next steps for readying commercial production for eteplirsen, its Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug that performed exceptionally in mid-stage trials.

Now what: It remains to be seen whether the FDA will grant accelerated approval of eteplirsen given its results, which crushed the placebo, but, to agree with my Foolish colleague Brian Orelli, the FDA definitely should! Eteplirsen not only slowed down the progression of the disease, but actually showed walking improvement after 48 weeks in some patients -- that's phenomenal and all the more reason to believe this orphan drug is headed for an accelerated approval.

Craving more input? Start by adding Sarepta Therapeutics to your free and personalized watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.

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The article Why Sarepta Therapeutics Shares Popped originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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