ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARIA) and 3-Week PFS Benefit

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARIA) could strengthen from a 3-week PFS benefit, which should be outlined thoroughly at ASCO in June.

Barclays says, "With focus on clinical relevance of a 3-week PFS benefit we believe that investigator assessed PFS of -8 weeks is more likely to reflect clinically relevant progression than central radiographic review and to track with both cancer related symptom progression and overall survival trends. We expect detail of data at ASCO in June to be better than the headline and would buyers on today's muted reaction.

With focus on clinical relevance of a 3.1 week PFS benefit we would note the approval of Tarceva for NSCLC maintenance therapy on -1 month benefit and on -2 week benefit in pancreatic CA. We expect significant focus on secondary endpoints of overall survival (OS) and cancer related symptoms and believe that clinician rated progression is likely more indicative of overall patient benefit on these metrics than that from centralized radiologists. Based on Sarcoma natural history we expect >50% of deaths to occur before ASCO and for sufficient detail to support regulatory filing in 2H11."

Barclays maintains an "Overweight" rating on ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (ARIA), which was trading at $6.47, down $0.57, or 8.03 percent, as of 1:44 PM EST. Barclays has a price target on ARIAD of $9.