RAPT Therapeutics: Stock nearly 9% higher after bullish initiations
- Wells Fargo's Yanan Zhu started coverage of RAPT with an Outperform and $33 tgt (~60% upside compared to Friday's close) given, "Our positive rating and outlook is based on opportunities for the company's CCR4 inhibitor programs, which exploit T cell homing as a novel mechanism for the treatment of a wide range of allergic inflammatory diseases and cancer. Overall, we see the lead immunology product candidate, CCR4 inhibitor RPT193, as having a $1B+ opportunity as an oral competitor to blockbuster injectable drug DUPIXENT as well as a potentially safer alternative to emerging high profile JAK inhibitors. We view additional option value to immuno-oncology drug FLX475 with a differentiated development strategy from other drugs in this category."
- BMO Capital Markets analyst Do Kim launched coverage of RAPT with an Outperform and $35 tgt (~70% upside compared to Friday's close) stating, "We believe Rapt's CCR4 antagonist programs have a sound biological basis for addressing clinically validated disease pathways in immuno-oncology and allergy. We believe a Phase 1b partial responder for lead drug FLX475 provides early proof-of-concept, suggesting broad benefit in charged tumors. We believe second drug RPT193 could have biologic-like efficacy in atopic dermatitis, but with oral convenience and better safety. We expect proof-of-concept data for FLX475 (1H20) and RPT193 (mid-2020) to be near-term catalysts."
- UBS also initiated the stock with a Buy, $26 tgt; specifically, "RAPT is an early clinical-stage biotech with two lead CCR4antagonists for multiple indications: FLX475 (solid tumors) and RPT193 (atopicdermatitis and allergic asthma). We estimate risk-adjusted peak sales of$448M for FLX475 and $283M for RPT193. Both assets prevent thechemokines, CCL17 and CCL22 from interacting with the CCR4 receptorwhich is thought to drive pathologic recruitment of immunosuppressive Tregcells (in cancers) and pro-inflammatory Th2 cells (in allergic diseases). Preclinical data for both assets & data from other molecules with similar mechanisms of action (or in similar pathways) lead us to conclude that CCR4 antagonism is an interesting target for both oncology & immunology."