Hedge Funds Make a Bundle on Inhibitex $INHX

Shares of Inhibitex (INHX) more than doubled Friday morning. The increase came “after the company released promising new data on its hepatitis C drug candidate,” reports TheStreet. “The Inhibitex drug INX-189 belongs to the same “nucleoside” class of potent oral hepatitis C drugs as Pharmasset’s(VRUS_) heralded PSI-7977. The difference, of course, is that Inhibitex’s market value is $300 million, or at least it was going into Friday’s trading. Pharmasset’s market value is close to $6 billion.”

INHX shares swelled from $3.96 a close Thursday to trade at $8.07 a share at 10am EST. The following hedge funds made the most:

1. Qvt Financial – Daniel Gold: Gained $32.6 million

2. Orbimed Advisors – Samuel Isaly: Gained $11.7 million

3. Bridger Management – Roberto Mignone: Gained $10.8 million

4. Ra Capital Management – Peter Kolchinsky: Gained $8.9 million

5. Adage Capital Management – Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson: Gained $6.2 million

6. Visium Asset Management – Jacob Gottlieb: Gained $4.1 million

7. Baker Bros. Advisors – Julian Baker and Felix Baker: Gained $3.2 million

8. Renaissance Technologies – Jim Simons: Gained $3.2 million

9. Partner Fund Management – Christopher Medlock James: Gained $1.5 million

10. Driehaus Capital – Richard Driehaus: Gained $1.3 million

DISCLAIMER: These calculations assume that these hedge funds did not increase or reduce their stock positions in INHX since the end of June. We did not take into account their option positions.