ICPT - JMP Securities Reiterates ICPT with Market Outperform, price target: $150
- Firm notes that last Friday, they interviewed Dr. Rohit Loomba, a leading expert in NASH and a professor at UC San Diego, in light of the recent development on the Ocaliva Dear Doctor letter and the FDA safety warning.
- In line with firms view, Dr. Loomba believes that any drug, when over-dosed, can induce liver injury, especially in patients who already have severe liver impairment to begin with. As an example, he referred to the similar concerns of using interferon in HCV patients with cirrhosis many years ago. Therefore, he remains comfortable prescribing Ocaliva to PBC patients who do not have Child-Pugh B and C (very sick patient populations), stressing that dosing needs to be closely monitored. Meanwhile, Dr. Loomba thinks the read-through to NASH F2-3 patients is yet to be determined and so far there are no red flags from the previous FLINT data or the ongoing Phase 3 study, which is under active DSMB monitoring. Lastly, regarding the bile acid vs. non-bile acid debate, he is hesitant to draw any comparisons until further clinical validation of different assets in development. Net-net, firm continues to recommend shares of ICPT on the recent dip as Ocaliva is still the only novel drug approved in PBC.