Biohaven (BHVN.US) plummeted by nearly 13% in premarket due to phase II trial failure of a new drug for depression! Why is Wall Street collectively “defending”?

The Zhitong Finance App learned that although Wall Street analysts defended Biohaven in response to the Christmas Eve announcement, the biotech company (BHVN.US) fell nearly 13% before the market on Friday — a phase II clinical trial of its antidepressant candidate BHV-7000 failed.

The New Haven, Conn., company said on Wednesday that since BHV-7000 (opakalim) failed to reach a major end in a phase II proof-of-concept study for severe depressive disorder, it will not conduct clinical trials with any psychoactive drug candidates in the combination adjustment.

According to reports, Citibank analyst Samantha Semenkow gave Biohaven a “buy” rating. She believes that although the BHV-7000 depression trial data is disappointing, investors' “expectations for the success of this study are extremely low.”

William Blair's Myles Minter shared the same opinion. He pointed out that although it was disappointing that the trial did not reach the end, his company gave Biohaven a “same rating as the market” because “clinical trials have become more difficult to perform and the placebo effect has increased in recent years.”

Against the backdrop of this clinical trial setbacks, Biohaven is turning its focus to the first half of 2026 — when the company will release top-line data for one of two key studies that will evaluate the efficacy of 25 mg and 50 mg doses of opokalim (BHV-7000) in patients with refractory focal epilepsy.

Citibank analyst Semenkow pointed out that investors are currently focusing more on BHV-7000's late-stage research data on epilepsy indications. This key data is expected to be released in the first half of 2026. Raymond James analyst Christopher Raymond also took a similar position and advised investors to “continue to focus on potential opportunities in the field of focal epilepsy.” Meanwhile, Leerink analyst Marc Goodman confessed in the report that the poor test data was “disappointing, but expected.”

Goodman maintained Biohaven's “outperforming the market” rating and emphasized that this data disclosure is one of several key catalysts the company expects to drive the stock price increase over the next 6 to 9 months.

Meanwhile, RBC Capital Markets analyst Leonid Timashev gave a rating of “on par with the industry” and pointed out that the current setback may be a one-off event — the essence of which is to “clear the way” for the higher-probability catalytic event in 2026.