Shares of Allergan Inc. rallied Thursday after a potential rival drug to flagship Botox hit a snag and investors regained confidence a day after the company gave lower guidance for the current quarter.
The Irvine drug maker’s shares closed up 4% with a market value of $20.6 billion.
Allergan’s shares got a boost when the Food and Drug Administration denied Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp.’s application for Reloxin, a potential wrinkle-removing rival to Botox.
The move is just a temporary setback for Medicis, which called the delay aministrative, rather than substantive.
Investors also seemed to realize that first-quarter profit guidance given by Chief Executive David Pyott during Allergan’s fourth-quarter conference call on Wednesday that was substantially below what Wall Street expected was conservative and left room for some upside.
Allergan said it expects to earn between $155 million and $158.1 million in the first quarter, versus analysts’ expectation of $174 million.
