Key Reasons BTIG Just Upgraded Kite Pharma

A solid strategy and great execution have led BTIG analyst, Dane Leone, to upgrade his recommendation on Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE) to Buy, and set a price target of $100.

The Core Theses That Sees Upside Over 20%

Kita Pharma’s trademark brand, Aix-Cel, should garner approximately 60 percent of the current market share as there is no current competitor in the market. “Although data is difficult to compare, we can give a clear win for the manufacturing of Axi-Cel versus peers, which we view as a critical variable for commercial adoption,” Leone noted.

Kite Pharma has produced much stronger results than its competitors. Specifically, Leone said Novartis Ag (ADR) (NYSE: NVS), which will host a call on June 16, will have a hard time explaining why 47 of their patients did not receive the therapy. “On efficacy, KITE sits ahead of Novartis using an Intent-To-Treat analysis for the respective pivotal datasets (~29 percent ZUMA-1 vs ~22 percent JULIET). We see general equivalency across toxicity,” Leone said.

Leone supports the “commercial trajectory” Kite Pharma is gearing toward in the near future. This should help push them past the $172 million consensus 2018 revenue target.

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