Shares of Prima BioMed Ltd (ADR) NASDAQPNMD are up 61 percent year-to-date, but still significantly below their 52-week high of $6.48.
FBR’s Vernon T. Bernardino initiated coverage of the company with an Outperform rating and a price target of $6.
The company has made significant advancement in enhancing its clinical stage product pipeline, Bernardiono noted.
Prima BioMed, which had only one active clinical program in 2014, has expanded and currently has three novel product candidates under active clinical development. Potential products from the company include IMP321, IMP731, and GSK 2831781, with the latter two rapidly under advancement by partners committed to their full evaluation.
“We believe the current valuation of Prima BioMed is disconnected from our estimation of the significant value PBMD has created in advancing its clinical-stage product pipeline,” analyst Vernon Bernardino mentioned.
Bernardino believes that the initiation of AIPAC, a planned Phase IIb combination study with paclitaxel and IMP321, will act as a significant catalyst for the stock. He added that positive AIPAC results could lead to full marketing authorization for IMP321 in the EU.
“[We] believe Prima’s next-generation approach in targeting checkpoint pathways is likely to generate significant partnership interest in the next 12 to 18 months,” the FBR report stated, while adding that the market for checkpoint modulators is witnessing continued growth.
Bernardino believes that IMP321 has blockbuster potential in breast cancer alone and expects it to gain approval in metastatic breast cancer as its first indication in 2020.
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