(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FATE) a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company had its “buy” rating and target price of $9 maintained at H.C. Wainwright today.
“We continue to believe that Fate Therapeutics represents an undervalued player with significant upside for the long-term investor” analyst Reni Benjamin wrote in a research note dated today.
Benjamin cited Fate’s diverse pipeline of small molecule modulators targeting both haematological malignancies and orphan diseases and a cash position of $51.3 million.
The San Diego California-based company yesterday announced interim data and final clearance from an independent data monitoring committee (iDMC) for the ongoing Phase 2 PUMA trial of PROHEMA for restoring hematopoiesis in patients with haematological malignancies.
Of 12 patients who received PROHEMA following myeloablative or reduced-intensity conditioning nine achieved neutrophil engraftment and 67 percent of the successful engraftments occurred faster than historical control groups utilizing un-manipulated cord blood units.
Given these encouraging results and a lack of PROHEMA-related toxicity the iDMC recommended the continuation of the PUMA study. Earlier this week the iDMC conducted the second of two scheduled interim reviews of the PUMA trial to assess safety time to engraftment rates of graft failure early mortality infection and graft versus host disease (GvHD).
HCW views this as “excellent news” for investors.
A second $10 million tranche of debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank is tied to the advancement of the PUMA trial and PROHEMA is also expected to be tested in a paediatric Phase 1 PROMPT study and a Phase 1 PROVIDE trial in paediatric patients with rare inborn metabolic disorders before the end of the year.
“In our opinion 2015 should be a data-rich year as readouts from all three trials are expected” Benjamin wrote.
Shares shot up 43 percent to $5.28 at 3:24 p.m. in New York paring this year’s losses to 16 percent.
HCW said that evaluation of PROHEMA in adult patients in the Phase 2 PUMA trial is ongoing with the potential to report efficacy data by mid-2015.
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