Shares of Amarin Corp. are up about 6% in premarket trading after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Thursday voted 16-0 in favor of a broader label for the company’s prescription fish oil-derived pill. The FDA is expected to decide on the new label by Dec. 28. If approved, Vascepa would be marketed as a treatment to lower the risk of cardiovascular events, like heart attacks or strokes. This label expansion would also likely expand the size of the patient population from 4 million to more than 40 million, according to Maxim Group analyst Jason McCarthy. “In our view, the market has the potential to be statin-like in size,” he wrote in a note Friday. Stifel estimates $3 billion peak sales of Vascepa. Shares of Matinas BioPharma Holdings , which is developing a similar drug to Vascepa, also rose in premarket market trading, up 14%. Amarin stock has jumped 57.9% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is up 23%.
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