Reasons To Stay Bullish On Alnylam In The New Year

At its R&D Day in New York City on December 16, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) discussed its clinical pipeline of RNAi drugs, including the phase III APOLLO trial of patisiran for transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP).

Chardan Capital’s Madhu Kumar maintains a Buy rating on the company, while lowering the price target from $89 to $69.

Bullish Stance

Expressing a bullish stance on Alnylam Pharma ahead of the data from the APOLLO trial in 2017, Kumar mentioned that the “opt-in to co-develop and co-commercialize fitusiran” in partnership with Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE: SNY) is a positive for Alnylam Pharma.

At its R&D Day, the company provided further details regarding the recently discontinued revusiran program for TTR familial amyloid cardiomyopathy (TTR-FAC).

Uncertainties

However, the analyst believes there are still meaningful uncertainties regarding the future of the company’s TTR-FAC therapeutic strategy.

Alnylam Pharma presented the Phase I and Phase II data for ALN-CC5 in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) on December 5 at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition.

Kumar, however, believes the PNH landscape has “fundamentally changed with LDH normalization serving as the new standard for competitiveness.”

The market share estimate for ALN-CC5 has therefore been lowered from peak share of 15.4 percent to 5.4 percent.

At Last Check

• Shares of Alnylam were flat on the day up a penny at $44.40.
• Shares of Sanofi were up 1.25 percent at $39.02.