Actelion sees $80 million hit from ruling

Actelion, Europe's largest biotech company, forecast an $80 million hit to 2009 operating profit after an arbitration panel ruled against a unit in a dispute with a Japanese drug firm. It is the second piece of bad news for Actelion this week, coming just after the group's key insomnia drug almorexant had unspecified safety problems in a late-stage trial, and reinforces the risky nature of the biotech business.
"This announcement comes as a negative surprise to us as we did not think that such a high indemnification would have to be paid," Helvea analyst Olav Zilian said in a note. "Although this is another negative surprise following the undisclosed safety observations made with almorexant, we believe that the market will not take today's announcement too negatively since it is a single, even if hefty, cash item," Zilian said. Shares in Actelion fell 0.4 percent lower at 55.85 Swiss francs, while the DJ Stoxx European healthcare sector was 0.5 percent firmer.