How the FDA Ruined Amarin's Day

This episode of The Motley Fool's Market Checkup drills down on the hottest headlines and biggest market movers in the health-care sector.

In this video, health-care analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso discuss Amarin's sudden 20% plunge, courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration. The small-cap stock's fish oil-based triglyceride fighter Vascepa is attempting increase its potential customer base from 4 million to roughly 36 million by expanding its treatment. This is incredibly important for the future of the company.

With that in mind, the FDA just released its briefing documents for the October 16 advisory committee review, and investors were not happy. It surprisingly raised questions about the mineral oil placebo potentially negatively impacting the control group data and consequentially overstating Vascepa's effectiveness. This review also comes at a time when a number of new studies have shown limited improvement of cardiovascular outcomes for patients taking fish oil.

Watch and find out more about the concerns raised in the report, what big Wall Street firm came to Amarin's defense, and possible outcomes for the drug and stock's future.

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The article How the FDA Ruined Amarin's Day originally appeared on Fool.com.

David Williamson owns shares of Amarin (ADR) and Goldman Sachs. Follow David on Twitter @MotleyDavid. Max Macaluso, Ph.D. has no position in any stocks mentioned, and neither does The Motley Fool. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not 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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