After hosting a call with CEO Chris Kramer and CFO Bill Roeschlein, Lake Street analyst Jaeson Schmidt has increased confidence that Intermolecular is positioned to see sustained top line growth and improving profitability this year and next. The analyst continues to like how shares are set up for this year saying growth should no longer be “masked” and year-over-year comps get easier in the second half of 2019. Further, with 58% of the market cap in cash and the recently announced $10M buyback program, there should be a “relatively high floor” on Intermolecular shares in the near-term, contends Schmidt. He reiterates a Buy rating on the stock with a $3 price target.
Friday, January 4, 2019
Millendo Therapeutics initiated at Ladenburg
Millendo Therapeutics initiated with a Buy at Ladenburg. Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Matthew Kaplan started Millendo Therapeutics with a Buy rating and $29 price target.
Syndax initiated at Baird
Syndax initiated with an Outperform at Baird. Baird analyst Madhu Kumar initiated Syndax with an Outperform rating, citing a positive risk/reward, its valuation at cash levels despite having a pivotal asset with FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation, and its drug pipeline. Kumar has a $30 price target on Syndax shares.
BeiGene downgraded to Outperform at CLSA as Celgene goes ‘from friend to foe’
As previously reported, CLSA analyst David Li downgraded BeiGene to Outperform from Buy following the news yesterday of Bristol-Myers’ (BMY) proposed acquisition of Celgene (CELG) in a note titled “From friend to foe.” He thinks Celgene is unlikely to continue to cooperate with BeiGene on its PD-1 after the deal goes through and also worries about the three commercialized products licensed from Celgene and about the company selling out of its BeiGene stake, he tells investors. He lowered his price target on BeiGene shares to HK$89.86 from HK$121.34.
Tetraphase initiated at B. Riley FBR
Tetraphase resumed with a Buy at B. Riley FBR. B. Riley FBR analyst David Buck resumed coverage of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals with a Buy rating and $3 price target.
PierianDx in Pact with Illumina to Support Cancer Research and Diagnostics
PierianDx, a leading clinical genomics informatics company, today announced a strategic, non-exclusive, multi-year partnership with Illumina, Inc.to provide a variant interpretation and reporting solution based on PierianDx’s Clinical Genomics Workspaceplatform and Clinical Genomics Knowledgebase for select Illumina oncology products. Under the agreement, PierianDx and Illumina will offer customers the option of informatics capabilities for Illumina oncology products, including Illumina’s TruSight™ Tumor 170 and TruSight™ Oncology 500, which are currently intended for research use only (RUO). The partnership extends to support Illumina’s future oncology in vitro diagnostic (IVD) offerings. Advancing cancer diagnostics and making targeted therapeutics more accessible to healthcare systems, laboratories, and patients worldwide is a key focus of both parties.
“Accessibility of genomic testing in clinical oncology is critical to realizing the promise of immuno- and targeted therapies and personalized medicine,” stated Rakesh Nagarajan, MD, PhD, Founder and Executive Chairman, PierianDx. “Today, few laboratories have the ability to offer comprehensive tumor profiling because of the complexities associated with validating large NGS assays and interpreting genomic results. This agreement between PierianDx and Illumina has the potential to provide laboratories clinically optimized solutions that may accelerate assay validation and deployment and simplify genomic interpretation.”
“The combination of Illumina’s comprehensive tumor profiling assays with PierianDx’s variant interpretation and reporting solutions will provide customers with a seamless experience,” said Garret Hampton, PhD, Executive Vice President of Clinical Genomics at Illumina.
“PierianDx is thrilled to receive this substantial validation of our genomics Software as a Service (‘SaaS’) platform by a global leader in our space. Our relationship with Illumina will allow us to greatly accelerate our U.S. and international strategic plans as we seek to be the wisdom behind every genomics report,” said Michael L. Sanderson, CEO of PierianDx.
Under the agreement Illumina and its affiliates will be responsible for the distribution of the RUO oncology products and packaged solutions. Laboratories that purchase the RUO products from Illumina will have an option to receive from PierianDx standardized reporting, driven by professional guidelines for streamlined case review and sign-out. In addition, laboratories who purchase the bundled RUO oncology product with the PierianDx informatics solution will receive access to PierianDx’s Clinical Genomics Workspace for analysis, interpretation, and reporting of genomic results. Laboratories will also have the opportunity to engage PierianDx for additional services such as genomic interpretation, medical sign-out, and electronic medical record integration.
Adaptive Biotech in Pact with Genentech for Personalized Cancer Therapies
Adaptive Biotechnologies an immune-driven medicine company, today announced that it will enter into a worldwide collaboration and license agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to develop, manufacture and commercialize novel neoantigen directed T-cell therapies for the treatment of a broad range of cancers. The collaboration will combine Genentech’s global cancer immunotherapy research and development leadership with Adaptive’s proprietary T-cell receptor (TCR) discovery and immune profiling platform (TruTCR™) to accelerate a transformational new treatment paradigm of tailoring cellular therapy for each patient’s individual cancer.
Adaptive offers a pioneering technology platform to rapidly identify T-cell receptors (TCRs) that can most effectively recognize and directly target specific neoantigens, which are proteins generated by tumor-specific mutations not present in normal tissues. Through this partnership, Adaptive will utilize the investigational TCR discovery platform to identify the optimal TCRs to most effectively target each patient’s neoantigens for treatment. Genentech will engineer and manufacture a personalized cellular medicine to deliver to each patient. The goal is to harness the vast majority of therapeutically relevant, patient-specific neoantigens and advance the next generation of cellular therapies in oncology.
“We believe targeting neoantigens could be the most effective approach for harnessing a person’s immune system to fight cancer,” said James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., global head of Pharma Partnering, Roche. “This partnership, which combines Adaptive’s pioneering platform for identifying T-cell receptors with Genentech’s cancer immunology expertise, has the potential to change the way cancer is treated and bring us one step closer to truly personalized healthcare.”
“Cellular therapy approaches in cancer have been limited by the inability to effectively screen and translate the immune response to patient-specific neoantigens. Accurate recognition of such neoantigens is a major driver in the activity of novel immunotherapies,” added Harlan Robins, Ph.D., head of innovation and co-founder of Adaptive Biotechnologies. “Given Adaptive’s unique ability to read and access the immune system at unprecedented scale and precision, Adaptive and Genentech can potentially jointly develop a patient-specific approach to treating cancer.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Adaptive will receive $300 million in an initial upfront payment and may be eligible to receive more than $2 billion over time, including payments upon achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones, and royalties on sales. Genentech will have responsibility for clinical, regulatory, and commercialization efforts, and Adaptive will be responsible for patient-specific screening on a global basis.
Adaptive will continue to use its TCR discovery and immune profiling platform to collaborate in the development of cellular therapies in other disease areas, including autoimmune conditions and infectious diseases.
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