Piper Jaffray analyst Sean Wieland believes some confusion over Aetna’s intentions have pressured the shares of Teladoc (TDOC). The confusion lies in the fact that this was a “Request for Price” and not a “Request for Proposal,” Wieland tells investors in a research note. However, his channel checks indicate there isn’t any intention of CVS Health’s (CVS) Aetna switching vendors. To the contrary, we’ve seen companies do this in front of a contract expansion, when they need to provide the board with benchmark pricing data to prove they are not overpaying, says the analyst. As such, he believes potential risk related to Teladoc’s Aetna contract is minimal. Further, Wieland sees upside to Teladoc’s initial guidance on stronger utilization trends as “telemedicine continues to go mainstream.” He views the stock as oversold and reiterates an Overweight rating with an $86 price target.
Monday, April 1, 2019
Autolus Therapeutics to host conference call
Conference call to discuss the ALLCAR19 data presented at AACR will be held on April 2 at 8 am.
AngioDynamics granted FDA approval to initiate NanoKnife DIRECT study
AngioDynamics announced that the United States FDA approved the company’s investigational device exemption application for its NanoKnife Irreversible Electroporation “Direct IRE Cancer Treatment” clinical study. The DIRECT Study supports a proposed expanded indication for the NanoKnife System in the treatment of Stage III pancreatic cancer. In January 2018, the FDA granted the company’s NanoKnife System a Breakthrough Device Designation under the 21st Century Cures Act.
Merck’s KEYTRUDA approved in China for treatment of NSCLC
Merck announced that KEYTRUDA, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, has been approved by the National Medical Products Administration in combination with pemetrexed and platinum chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations. This new indication was granted conditional approval based on overall survival and progression-free survival data from the pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-189 trial in patients regardless of PD-L1 tumor expression status. Continued approval may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in Chinese patients in a confirmatory trial. With this approval, KEYTRUDA is the first anti-PD-1 therapy approved for more than one tumor type in China, following its initial approval in July 2018 for advanced melanoma, and the first anti-PD-1 therapy approved in the first-line treatment setting for metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC.
Salix Pharmaceuticals enters license agreement with University Of California
Salix Pharmaceuticals announced its affiliate has entered into a license agreement with the University of California via UCLA’s Technology Development Group for certain intellectual property relating to an investigational compound targeting the pituitary adenylate cyclase receptor 1 in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and various other gastrointestinal and liver diseases.
Ziopharm announces fast track designation for controlled IL-12 program
Ziopharm announced that the FDA has granted fast track designation for its controlled IL-12 program, or Ad-RTS-hIL-12 plus veledimex, for the treatment of recurrent or progressive glioblastoma multiforme, or rGBM, in adults. Data previously presented suggest that Ad-RTS-hIL-12 with 20mg veledimex improves the median overall survival from six to nine months seen with available therapies to 12.7 months, with further improvement to 17.8 months in a subset of subjects with reduced cumulative steroid exposure during the active dosing period of veledimex.
Y-mAbs Therapeutics initiated at H.C. Wainwright
Y-mAbs Therapeutics initiated with a Buy at H.C. Wainwright. H.C. Wainwright analyst Raghuram Selvaraju started Y-mAbs Therapeutics with a Buy rating and $36 price target. The company has a “highly differentiated business model,” focusing on rare, hitherto difficult-to-treat pediatric cancers with next-generation monoclonal antibody therapeutics, Selvaraju tells investors in a research note. He believes the company’s is a platform “possesses multiple advantages.”
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