Timing is everything for GW Pharma shareholders today

After moving up 9% to 156p early in the day, GW Pharma (GWP) succumbed to some heavy profit taking and finished down 6.4% at 132p. News from the company's commercial partner Bayer that Sativex would be priced at £11 a day on the NHS with expectations of sales in the UK of around £11 million and £50 million in Europe were at the bottom end of some analysts expectations and this probably served to drive sentiment the wrong way. It was certainly a case of excellent timing today for those shareholders able to sell their stock over 150p given it lasted for less than an hour. As I said on the blog yesterday, I do not see catalysts to push the share price much higher until tangible sales of Sativex come through which are ahead of expectations, since the larger milestone payments relating to European approval are now in the bag.