Chardan Capital Affirms Endocyte (ECYT) at Buy Following Q2 Results, Operational Update

Chardan Capital affirms Endocyte (Nasdaq: ECYT) at Buy with a price target of $15 following Q2 results and updated information of EC1456.

Analyst Ling Wang commented, ECYT reported 2Q14 EPS of $0.54, vs. consensus estimate of $(0.05) and our estimate of $(0.10), primarily due to the recognition of the majority of the deferred revenue due to the termination of the collaboration with Merck. It ended 2Q14 with ~$219.2MM in cash & equivalents, which should be sufficient to fund operations into at least 2H15 according to our projections. Management guided the cash position at YE14 of ~$200MM and spending in 2H14 to decline significantly with costs of phase III PROCEED trial already booked and the wrapping up of the phase II TARGET trial.

EC1456 is ECYT's second SMDC, which has the same FR target as vintafolide, but uses tubulysin (a more potent cytotoxic agent) as the drug payload. The phase I trial is currently dosing the third dose cohort, which is comparable to vintafolide's effective dose. EC1456 is well tolerated so far. To date, no objective response has been seen in the first dose cohort, though tumor size reduction has occurred. The trial expects to complete the dose escalation part of the trial by early 2015. and EC1169 is tubulysin, which has demonstrated curative activity in preclinical models that were resistant to paclitaxel, cisplatin and vintafolide. EC1169, targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), is currently in early phase I trial, Wang concluded.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Endocyte click here. For more ratings news on Endocyte click here.

Endocyte closed at $6.12 yesterday.

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