DaVita initiated with an Overweight at Barclays. Barclays analyst Patrick Feeley started DaVita with an Overweight rating and $70 price target. The analyst likes the stock’s risk/reward heading into 2019 given the industry backdrop and what he expects to be “materially accretive” share repurchases next year following the sale of DaVita Medical Group.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Encompass Health initiated at Barclays
Encompass Health initiated with an Equal Weight at Barclays. Barclays analyst Patrick Feeley started Encompass Health with an Equal Weight rating and $75 price target. The company should continue to benefit from its development program, but shares fully discount the opportunity at present, Feeley tells investors in a research note.
Lilly expands links with Evidation Health for Andromeda platform
Eli Lilly and Evidation Health announced that they have expanded their collaboration with a multi-year agreement to provide Lilly with global access to Evidation’s Andromeda data platform. As a result of this announcement, Lilly scientists and researchers across therapeutic portfolios will have access to Evidation’s data platform with the goal of uncovering new ways to measure and understand a patient’s health by accessing consented data derived from smartphones, connected sensors, wearables, and even his or her own voice. The terms of the agreement are undisclosed. With Andromeda, Lilly scientists now have access to a private, collaborative and secure analytical environment where they can use, Evidation-built algorithms to process raw data for use in clinical studies or to create their own predictive models.
Bausch Health upgraded to Buy from Neutral at H.C. Wainwright
H.C. Wainwright analyst Raghuram Selvaraju upgraded Bausch Health Companies to Buy from Neutral and raised his price target for the shares to $58 from $25. The company formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals closed yesterday down 48c to $23.65. Now is an “appropriate time to become more bullish on the story,” Selvaraju tells investors in a research note. The analyst sees “continued evidence” that Bausch’s organic growth should have a substantial impact on the company’s debt-to-EBITDA ratio, and thus make it a less leveraged company. The market has “underrated and underappreciated the tuck-in and complementarity-driven developments” of the past several months, which have gradually begun to position Bausch Health more strongly in several core markets, says Selvaraju. The analyst points to the launches of Altreno and Bryhali and the inclusion of Doptelet, a drug complementary to Xifaxan.
Bellicum Pharmaceuticals reports data from BPX-601 at ESMO-IO
Bellicum Pharmaceuticals reported safety and activity of BPX-601 in part 1 of a Phase 1/2 dose-escalation study in patients with advanced, metastatic pancreatic cancer expressing prostate stem cell antigen, or PSCA. BPX-601 is a novel GoCAR-T cell candidate incorporating Bellicum’s co-activation domain, iMC, designed to boost T cell proliferation and persistence via administration of rimiducid. Data were reviewed during an oral presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology Immuno-Oncology Congress, or ESMO-IO. A total of 12 patients with advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer expressing PSCA were treated with escalating doses of BPX-601 cells in a 3+3 design. Nine of 12 patients received a single dose of rimiducid following BPX-601 treatment to evaluate its effect on cell expansion and persistence. Patients in the study received a reduced conditioning regimen consisting of cyclophosphamide only. The administration of BPX-601 without rimiducid resulted in limited expansion of cells, but the cells did not persist. A single dose of rimiducid seven days following BPX-601 administration resulted in significant expansion of cells in four patients in spite of a reduced conditioning regimen. BPX-601 cells persisted longer than three weeks in three patients after a single dose of rimiducid. Increases in key cytokine levels were observed in patients receiving higher doses of BPX-601 cells and rimiducid. Four of six efficacy-evaluable patients treated with BPX-601 and a single dose of rimiducid had stable disease, with two patients demonstrating tumor shrinkage greater than 20%. No cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity of any grade was reported. The most frequently observed AEs were consistent with those experienced by advanced cancer patients undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy or other cancer immunotherapies. Patients continue to be evaluated in the study.
Orchard Therapeutics, SIRION Biotech enter license agreement for LentiBOOST
Orchard Therapeutics and SIRION Biotech announced the entry into a license agreement, pursuant to which Orchard has licensed SIRION’s LentiBOOST technology to enhance manufacturing efficiency for certain of Orchard’s ex vivo autologous hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy drug candidates. Under the terms of the agreement, SIRION will provide Orchard with a license to its proprietary lentiviral transduction enhancer LentiBOOST for development and commercialization activities for select Orchard programs. SIRION will be entitled to upfront and milestone payments and is eligible to receive royalties on net sales of future products that utilize the LentiBOOST technology.
Healthcare Services selloff on client Chapter 11 ‘way overblown,’ says Jefferies
Jefferies analyst Sean Dodge believes the 15% selloff in shares of Healthcare Services Group on the Chapter 11 filing of client Senior Care Centers is “way overblown.” After traveling with management, the analyst says he learned Healthcare Services is well positioned to recover all money it’s owed and should keep all services in place. Also notable, manager recruiting has resumed, paving the way for a second half of 2019 re-acceleration in revenue growth, Dodge tells investors in a research note. He keeps a Buy rating on Healthcare Services Group with a $52 price target.
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