Wall Street Looks Askance at Sepracor and Lunesta

Last October, Brandweek anointed two executives at Sepracor as our Marketers of the Year in the drug biz. Since then, things have gotten a little rocky at the company that spends $300 million a year on DTC ads. Their top DTC guy left recently. And today, stock analysts Friedman Billings Ramsey initiated coverage of the company with a sour note: “Sepracor's lead top-line driver Lunesta faces the entrance of generic Ambien in April 2007, and we believe that Sepracor's 2007 guidance of $685 million (21% annual growth) may be tough to achieve…. With Lunesta facing difficult market dynamics and Xopenex UDV [another Sepracor drug] facing reimbursement risk, we would remain on the sidelines.” Ouch! The folks over at Merrill Lynch are similarly unexcited about Sepracor and Lunesta. They estimate TRX and NRX are both flat at 11.1% and 11.6% share, respectively. It’s been that way for a long while, I can tell you.