Stockwatch: The difficult art of painting oneself out of a corner
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
As ever, those efficient accountants and auditors at Cubist Pharmaceuticals made sure that that the company again kicked off as early as possible the first half of 2011 earnings season on Thursday. While the announced a five percent increase in quarterly sales over Q2 2010 from its antibiotic Cubicin (daptomycin) for severe hospital infections, the challenge for Cubist is to build a sustainable business on product that everybody desires but no-one wants to use. Within the last few months, Cubist had been reported to be a takeover target first for AstraZeneca and then for Shire, although no deal has materialised.