Monogram Biosciences shares up

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Shares of HIV test maker Monogram Biosciences Inc. MGRM.O rose 12 percent on, what analysts said, speculation that its collaboration partner Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE.N) experimental HIV drug could receive a positive review from U.S. regulators.

Monogram has a diagnostic test, Trofile, that determines which patients are suited to receive Pfizer's HIV drug maraviroc, the analysts said.

On April 24, U.S. Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee will discuss Pfizer's new drug application for maraviroc 300 milligram tablets.

C.E. Unterberg, Towbin analyst Keay Nakae said approval for maraviroc would lead to a new opportunity for Trofile.

Monogram Chief Financial Officer Alfred Merriweather said by phone, "We believe our test will have an important use once the drug is approved."

Merriweather said it was encouraging that maraviroc received positive clinical results in February in terms of safety and efficacy.

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Jeffrey Frelick said "...given the data we have seen so far, we would expect it (the panel review) to be positive."

South San Francisco-based Monogram and Pfizer have a collaboration agreement to make Trofile available to patients globally.

In February, Pfizer said pivotal-stage trials found that adding maraviroc to a regimen of the best-available drugs resulted in twice as many patients achieving suppression of the virus.

If approved by regulators, maraviroc would be the first in a new class of oral HIV drugs designed to jam the mechanism that HIV needs to enter immune system cells.

Shares of Monogram rose 23 cents to $2.13 in afternoon trade on the Nasdaq.