After FDA Rejection This Biopharma Stock Garners Analyst Downgrades, Price Cuts
- JPMorgan has downgraded Humanigen Inc (NASDAQ: HGEN) to Underweight from Neutral and withdrew its price target after the FDA rejected its Emergency Use request for lenzilumab for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
- Related Content: See Why Humanigen Stock Is Plunging To 52-Week Low.
- While he calls the news "disappointing," analyst Eric Joseph adds that he is "not surprised by the decision." He views lenzilumab reasonably modest benefit to prevent progression to ventilation compared with other immunomodulatory agents that have received EUAs.
- He sees "little potential" for lenzilumab commercialization in the U.S. in the next six to nine months via EUA.
- H.C. Wainwright lowered HGEN's price target to $28 from $36, with a Buy rating unchanged. However, the FDA "remains quite engaged and is essentially asking for more data," according to analyst Joseph Pantginis data from the NIH ACTIV-5/BET-B study "should bring lenzilumab over the finish line."
- Though it remains a question whether Humanigen will seek another EUA or the conventional BLA route, Pantginis said he "conservatively" projects the latter.
- Roth Capital lowered the price target to $19 from $32 and kept a Buy rating. The FDA has invited Humanigen to submit additional data from the ongoing National Institutes of Health-supported study, notes analyst Tony Butler.
- The analyst believes the LIVE AIR study alone was insufficient to show the benefit of lenzilumab over its risk. But, he says that the collective data from the LIVE-AIR and ACTIV-5/BET-B studies may prove to be sufficient.
- Credit Suisse downgraded Humanigen to Neutral from Outperform with a $6 price target.
- Related content: Benzinga's Full FDA Calendar.
- Price Action: HGEN stock is down 47.50% at $7.93 during the market session on the last check Thursday.
Latest Ratings for HGEN
| Date | Firm | Action | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2021 | Jefferies | Downgrades | Buy | Hold |
| Sep 2021 | JP Morgan | Downgrades | Neutral | Underweight |
| Sep 2021 | HC Wainwright & Co. | Maintains | Buy |
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