Leerink Initiates Coverage On Five Prime Therapeutics

Leerink initiated coverage on Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: FPRX) Thursday with an Outperform rating and $35 price target.

Analyst Michael Schmidt commented that the company is “a specialist in the discovery of new antibody targets, focused on inflammation & immuno-oncology (I/O).”

"FPRX has applied its platform to generate a proprietary product pipeline and to enter into major strategic collaborations...that provide the company with funding. We believe FPRX's key value drivers are its 3 lead product candidates, proprietary FPA008 and FPA144, as well as partnered FP-1039 (GSK), addressing large market opportunities in autoimmune diseases and oncology,” according to the analyst note.

According to Schmidt, “Clinical catalysts in late 2015 and 2016 that could serve as early clinical validation for those agents, in our view. In addition, we believe advances by FPRX in development of new immune-checkpoint inhibitors and potential future partnerships could provide additional upside to the current valuation.”

Five Prime Therapeutics recently traded at $24.84, up 0.98 percent.