Thomas Weisel Partners More Than Double InterMune (ITMN) Price Target To $55

Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Stephen Willey maintained his Overweight rating for shares of InterMune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITMN) and raised the price target from $26 to $55.

The day before, a panel at the Food and Drug Administration recommended InterMune's pirfenidone for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and the stock surged 67% in after-market and pre-market trading.

An earlier vote on whether or not the treatment was clinically meaningful was 7 to 5 in favor but the latest vote supporting regulatory approval for the treatment of IPF was a much more promising vote of 9 to 3 in favor.

The Thomas Weisel Partners analyst wrote that, "ITMN shares had climbed to $38 when trading was resumed after-hours and we believe there’s more upside to be had from these levels. While we are generally cautious of companies in the post-clinical/pre-commercialization phase of a new product launch, we believe our current assumptions are quite modest and believe there’s upside to a lot of different variables throughout our model. We also believe there will likely be a M&A premium that gets baked in here as well, as product-focused mid-caps remain favorite targets for big pharma looking to leverage existing commercialization infrastructures."