uniQure BV (QURE) PT Lowered to $64 at H.C. Wainwright

H.C. Wainwright analyst Debjit Chattopadhyay lowered the price target on uniQure BV (NASDAQ: QURE) to $64.00 (from $73.00) while maintaining a Buy rating.

The analyst commented, "On June 24, 2020, uniQure licensed its lead asset AMT-061 (EtranaDez) to CSL Behring (CSLLY; not rated) in exchange for: (1) $450M in upfront payment; (2) $300M in regulatory milestones; (3) $1.3B in commercial milestones; and (4) royalties on net product sales ranging from mid teens to low 20%. Pro forma cash of $720M, excluding the $300M in regulatory milestones, should fund the emerging CNS and liver-directed gene therapy pipeline leveraged to the AAV5 vector into 2024. However, the cash bolus may not appease the Street, which was primed for an M&A centric exit for uniQure following the $4.8B acquisition of Spark Therapeutics, (now Roche, RHHBY; not rated) on February 25, 2019. While the readout from the HOPE registration study is expected during late 4Q20, associating the right M&A value to the company was unlikely until POC data from AMT-130 became available during 1H21, in our view. Hence, licensing EtranaDez to an established hematology franchise was the next best alternative, and the overall deal structure appears compelling to us. Importantly, the licensing alleviates the intermediate-term commercial risk for the first Hemophilia B gene therapy, likely to be launched during 4Q21, into a relatively sticky market with established relationships, and a community which might opt for a wait-and-see attitude with respect to adoption, having being decimated during the HIV crisis. While the deal structure is likely to be disappointing to many for potentially the best-in-class Hem-B program, moving to the sidelines now is of no value-add, especially if the 1H21 update from AMT-130 highlights differentiated advantages of an intrastriatally delivered, gene silencer in HD."

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