Wednesday, January 23, 2019
JPMorgan sees La Jolla as range bound, upgrades shares to Neutral
JPMorgan analyst Anupam Rama upgraded La Jolla Pharmaceutical to Neutral from Underweight while cutting his price target for the shares to $9 from $18. The analyst expects the focus to shift away from the Giapreza U.S. launch to other clinical programs, in particular the LJPC-401 program. He believes the shares shares will be more range bound in the first half of 2019, which forms his Neutral rating.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2852335
JPMorgan downgrades Neurocrine, says wait for pullback to buy
JPMorgan analyst Anupam Rama downgraded Neurocrine Biosciences to Neutral from Overweight while raising his price target for the shares to $100 from $97. The analyst says the shares have been a best performer year-to-date in his coverage universe despite the “disappointing” Tourette syndrome setback for Ingrezza in December 2018. He believes the share upside year-to-date largely accounts for Ingrezza beats in 2019 and continued growth longer-term. At current valuation levels, Rama would wait for a pullback before adding to Neurocrine positions.
XBiotech trial meets primary, secondary endpoints
XBiotech (NASDAQ: XBIT) announced today the successful outcome of its multicenter, open label, confirmatory study using bermekimab to treat patients with moderate to severe Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS). Primary and key secondary endpoints were met in this study with significant, differentiating findings. The Company previously published data from its double-blind placebo controlled study in HS using bi-weekly, intravenous infusions of bermekimab in which safety and primary efficacy endpoints were met. The present study, which tested a new concentrated subcutaneous formulation in a convenient pre-filled syringe, confirmed and expanded upon the previous findings.
The present study enrolled 42 patients, each receiving 400mg subcutaneous weekly doses of bermekimab in a 12-week treatment regimen. There were two treatment groups of subjects: those who had failed prior anti-TNF therapy (n=24); and those with no prior anti-TNF treatment history (n=18). The study was conducted at eleven different dermatology research centers across the U.S.
Bermekimab was well-tolerated with no safety concerns. Statistically significant improvement was seen for efficacy endpoints in both anti-TNF and anti-TNF naïve groups, including the Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response Score (HiSCR); Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI); Physician’s Global Assessment (PGA); Change in inflammatory lesion count; Disease Activity Score (DAS); and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) for Disease Impression and Pain. These efficacy findings differentiate bermekimab from the available treatments for HS.
Revance risk/reward attractive into RT002 launch, says Piper Jaffray
Revance Therapeutics has enough cash to commercialize RT002 in the aesthetics setting following last week’s capital raise, Piper Jaffray analyst David Amsellem tells investors in a research note. The company will be launching RT002 into a “consumer-focused, promotion-intensive landscape where it will be up against a well-entrenched competitor,” adds the analyst. However, Amsellem continues to believe that the body of data surrounding RT002 in glabellar lines points to the product gaining a “significant foothold.” He believes peak sales for RT002 could be well in excess of $1B, making for an attractive risk/reward profile on shares of Revance. The analyst reiterates an Overweight rating on the stock with a $50 price target.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2852095
Alnylam initiated at UBS
Alnylam initiated with a Neutral at UBS. UBS analyst Navin Jacob started Alnylam Pharmaceuticals with a Neutral rating and $87 price target. Near-term uncertainty suggests the shares are fairly valued, the analyst contends.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2852055
AbbVie initiated at UBS
AbbVie assumed with a Neutral at UBS. UBS analyst Navin Jacob assumed coverage of AbbVie with an unchanged Neutral rating and lowered his firm’s price target for the shares to $91 from $97. While the Humira biosimilar threat has been de-risked, the current valuation offers limited upside, says the analyst.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2852061
Aslan says varlitinib pre-clinical data published online in Cancers
Aslan Pharmaceuticals announced that new pre-clinical data on varlitinib’s activity in triple negative breast cancer, or TNBC, cell lines have been published online in Cancers, a peer-reviewed oncology journal. The data suggest that HER-family signalling plays an important role in TNBC progression and that pan-HER inhibition is potentially an effective treatment for TNBC patients. The article titled “Varlitinib Downregulates HER/ERK Signaling and Induces Apoptosis in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells” details the findings of the pre-clinical study in which investigators evaluated the efficacy of varlitinib, a reversible small molecule pan-HER inhibitor, in TNBC. In addition to data previously presented at the American Association for Cancer Research in 2017, the data show that varlitinib inhibited cell proliferation of three further TNBC cell lines.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2852063
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