• Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Log In
  • Sign Up
  • Data Privacy
  • Send a Release
Cision PR Newswire: news distribution, targeting and monitoring home
  • News
  • Products
  • Contact

 

When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All News Releases
      • All Public Company
      • English-only
      • News Releases Overview

      • Multimedia Gallery

      • All Multimedia
      • All Photos
      • All Videos
      • Multimedia Gallery Overview

      • Trending Topics

      • All Trending Topics
  • Business & Money
      • Auto & Transportation

      • All Automotive & Transportation
      • Aerospace, Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads and Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking and Road Transportation
      • Auto & Transportation Overview

      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • All Business Technology
      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • Business Technology Overview

      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • All Entertain­ment & Media
      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • Entertain­ment & Media Overview

      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • All Financial Services & Investing
      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers and Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalization
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • Financial Services & Investing Overview

      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • All General Business
      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Overseas Real Estate (non-US)
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls and Research
      • Trade Show News
      • General Business Overview

      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • All Consumer Technology
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • Consumer Technology Overview

      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • All Energy
      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil and Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • Energy & Natural Resources Overview

      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • All Environ­ment
      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • Environ­ment Overview

      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking and Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing Overview

      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • All Telecomm­unications
      • Carriers and Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • Telecomm­unications Overview

      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • All Consumer Products & Retail
      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines and Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics and Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture and Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewelry
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • Consumer Products & Retail Overview

      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • All Entertain­ment & Media
      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • Entertain­ment & Media Overview

      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • All Health
      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • Health Overview

      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • All Sports
      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • Sports Overview

      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • All Travel
      • Amusement Parks and Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels and Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • Travel Overview

      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • All Policy & Public Interest
      • Advocacy Group Opinion
      • Animal Welfare
      • Congressional & Presidential Campaigns
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Domestic Policy
      • Economic News, Trends, Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • FDA Approval
      • Federal and State Legislation
      • Federal Executive Branch & Agency
      • Foreign Policy & International Affairs
      • Homeland Security
      • Labor & Union
      • Legal Issues
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Patent Law
      • Public Safety
      • Trade Policy
      • U.S. State Policy
      • Policy & Public Interest Overview

      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • All People & Culture
      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • People & Culture Overview

      • View All People & Culture

      • In-Language News

      • Arabic
      • español
      • português
      • Česko
      • Danmark
      • Deutschland
      • España
      • France
      • Italia
      • Nederland
      • Norge
      • Polska
      • Portugal
      • Россия
      • Slovensko
      • Suomi
      • Sverige
  • Overview
  • Distribution by PR Newswire
  • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • Cision IR
  • Sponsored Placement
  • All Products
  • General Inquiries
  • Request a Demo
  • Editorial Bureaus
  • Partnerships
  • Media Inquiries
  • Worldwide Offices
  • PR Newswire: news distribution, targeting and monitoring
  • Send a Release
    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Us

      888-776-0942
      from 8 AM - 10 PM ET

  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Log In
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • News in Focus
    • Browse All News
    • Multimedia Gallery
    • Trending Topics
  • Business & Money
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Log In
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Overview
  • Distribution by PR Newswire
  • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • Cision IR
  • All Products
  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Log In
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • General Inquiries
  • Request a Demo
  • Editorial Bureaus
  • Partnerships
  • Media Inquiries
  • Worldwide Offices
  • Send a Release
  • Sign Up
  • Log In
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • RSS
  • GDPR

Krensavage Asset Management Urges Juniper Pharmaceuticals to Consider Sale of Company

Krensavage Analysis Suggests Juniper Assets Potentially Worth Twice Stock Price

Krensavage Implores Juniper to End Wasteful Research, Refrain from Acquiring

Krensavage Asset Management LLC Logo

News provided by

Krensavage Asset Management LLC

Apr 12, 2017, 07:04 ET

Share this article

Share this article


NEW YORK, April 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Krensavage Asset Management LLC, a 2.2% shareholder of Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNP), today publishes an open letter.

James A. Geraghty
Chairman
Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
33 Arch Street
Suite 3110
Boston, MA 02110

April 12, 2017

Dear Mr. Geraghty,

As the fifth-largest shareholder of Juniper Pharmaceuticals(1), we implore you to quit spending shareholders' money on failed science projects and instead consider selling the company. Juniper's cash, supply agreement with Merck KGaA and pharmaceutical-services business suggest a potential takeover value of more than twice the company's stock price(2).

Since Juniper went public in 1988, it has spent $237 million, or almost $22 a share, on science of dubious value. Its most-recent failure, a topical lidocaine to prevent the pain of gynecological procedures, helped consume almost $17 million on research and development during the last two years. Lidocaine is a proven painkiller available in over-the-counter sunburn lotions. Yours still managed to fail.

The lidocaine debacle follows Juniper's failed bid to develop a progesterone gel, Prochieve, to prevent preterm birth.  Physicians embrace progesterone as a prophylactic against premature labor. Juniper and a partner, the former Watson Pharmaceuticals, spent almost a decade and tens of millions of dollars testing Prochieve on more than 1,000 pregnant women. Regulators in 2012 rejected the drug.

Now Juniper is threatening to repeat this pattern by testing a drug that delivers progesterone via a vaginal ring. Its development likely would consume tens of millions of dollars and take at least five years while providing no guarantees of safety and efficacy.

Even if Juniper's progesterone ring were to win approval, it likely would compete with clones of an injectable progesterone approved in 2011, Makena. The prospects are slim that Juniper would ever recover its investment.

Juniper also is considering the development of a vaginal ring for incontinence. At first blush, its potential tantalizes: The ring would bypass the body's first-pass metabolism and spare the patient side effects such as dry mouth.

But a competing patch and gel that also avoids first-pass side effects have generated disappointing sales, perhaps because they compete with generic pills that retail for pennies. A patch sells over the counter for $30 a month. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited abandoned its oxybutynin vaginal ring. Juniper should do the same.

Juniper, with a market value less than $50 million, seems to have forgotten the difficulty small companies face promoting drugs. Management during its third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 15 said it would consider buying commercial operations.

In 2003, Juniper built a 122-person sales force to promote its testosterone supplement, Striant. Its revenue totaled $14.8 million when Juniper divested it in 2011. The list of small companies that failed to launch medicines includes Dendreon Corp., and Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Any efforts by Juniper to develop or promote drugs likely would detract from the company's intrinsic value, we estimate, of almost $9 a share.

Juniper's most-valuable asset, in our opinion, is its pharmaceutical-services business. We value it at more than $36 million, or $3.35 a share. Juniper in 2013 paid $27 million for the business, based in the United Kingdom. Its revenues have since grown 45%. Molecular Profiles can operate independently. It doesn't need supervision from a team of executives in the United States.

Juniper also has a supply agreement with Merck KGaA on Crinone, a progesterone approved to help women become pregnant. The Merck contract, in our opinion, probably is worth at least $3.30 a share, or twice that were Juniper to extend the Merck agreement beyond its expiration of May, 2020.

Other Juniper assets include net cash of more than $2 a share. We exclude the value of $156 million of tax-loss carryforwards because we find them difficult to assess.

Asset

Per-Share
Value

Notes

Net cash

$2.12

Current assets less current liabilities plus deferred revenue less notes payable as of Dec. 31.

Merck KGaA revenue

$3.30

Assumes Merck revenue growth of 3% annually until agreement ends May 19, 2020; gross margin of 43%, and Bloomberg's weighted-average cost of capital of 12.2%.

Juniper Pharma
Services

$3.35

Assumes 2.8 times 2016 revenue. Juniper acquired the business for 2.95 times revenue in 2013.

Sum

$8.77

Assumes 10.9 million shares outstanding.

Juniper management has an incentive to maintain the status quo, with its top-four executives earning $2.3 million a year and its non-employee directors earning more than $736,000 in 2015, according to the proxy.

Shareholders are paying executives more than 6% of the market capitalization a year. On April 11, the stock hit a record low.  While the company's executives continue to draw rich compensation, its investors suffer. We implore the company to act now and stop the downward spiral.

Regards,

Michael P. Krensavage
Founder
Krensavage Asset Management LLC

(1)   Bloomberg as of Dec. 31.
(2)   See Per-Share Valuation table

Contact:
David W. Walbert
Analyst
Krensavage Asset Management LLC
Office: (212) 706-0589
[email protected]

SOURCE Krensavage Asset Management LLC

Modal title

Contact Cision

  • Cision Distribution 888-776-0942
    from 8 AM - 9 PM ET

  • Chat with an Expert
  • General Inquiries
  • Request a Demo
  • Editorial Bureaus
  • Partnerships
  • Media Inquiries
  • Worldwide Offices

Products

  • Cision Communication Cloud®
  • For Marketers
  • For Public Relations
  • For IR & Compliance
  • For Agency
  • For Small Business
  • All Products

About

  • About PR Newswire
  • About Cision
  • Become a Publishing Partner
  • Become a Channel Partner
  • Careers
  • COVID-19 Resources
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Asia
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Czech
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Mexico
  • Middle East
  • Middle East - Arabic
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Russia
  • Slovakia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • United Kingdom

My Services

  • All New Releases
  • Online Member Center
  • ProfNet

Contact Cision

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Center
  • ProfNet
Cision Distribution Helpline
888-776-0942
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Information Security Policy
  • Site Map
  • RSS
  • Cookie Settings
Copyright © 2023 Cision US Inc.