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Botox Rival Evolus Roars Back With 123% Rally Despite FDA Delay

Botox Rival Evolus Roars Back With 123% Rally Despite FDA Delay

(Bloomberg) -- Evolus Inc. is reaching new highs, shrugging off a delay of potential approval of its Botox-rivaling wrinkle treatment.

The Street’s also unanimous in its love, with all analysts giving the shares a buy rating.

Why so much optimism when a Food and Drug Administration regulatory decision on the company’s key product, DWP-450, was pushed back from a hoped-for summer verdict to spring 2019? Some of the enthusiasm may stem from the company’s new Chief Executive Officer, David Moatazedi. He came to the company from their foremost competitor in the aesthetic market, Botox-maker Allergan Plc.

The Street may also be thinking that a spring 2019 approval may be a conservative estimate from management. JMP analyst Donald Ellis said in a note after Evolus’ update that a two-month review and an earlier launch by the end of this October was still possible.

With trading as high as $23.55 intraday, Evolus may soon double from its $12 per share initial public offering in February. The stock is up 123 percent in the week since the delay was announced. Analysts may need to reconsider their price targets as the average of the four analysts tracked by Bloomberg is roughly $22.

Botox Rival Evolus Roars Back With 123% Rally Despite FDA Delay

To contact the reporter on this story: Cristin Flanagan in New York at cflanagan1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Christiana Sciaudone

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