H.C. Wainwright Upgrades NovoCure Ltd. (NVCR) to Buy
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Rating Summary:
11 Buy, 4 Hold, 1 Sell
Rating Trend:

Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 19 | Down: 30 | New: 20
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H.C. Wainwright analyst Emily Bodnar upgraded NovoCure Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVCR) from Neutral to Buy with a price target of $30.00.
The analyst comments "Optune Lua receives FDA approval with favorable label based on the LUNAR Phase 3 study. Yesterday after market close, Novocure announced that the FDA has approved Optune Lua for the treatment of metastatic NSCLC for use concurrently with PD-(L)1 inhibitors or docetaxel in patients who have progressed on or after a platinum based regimen. The approval was based on the Phase 3 LUNAR study which demonstrated that there was a 3.3 month extension in median OS for patients treated with Optune Lua with a PD-(L)1 inhibitor or docetaxel (p=0.04). The median OS for the treatment arm was 13.2 months compared to 9.9 months for the control group. In the Optune Lua and a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor (n=70) group, there was a median OS of 19.0 months compared to a median OS of 10.8 months in patients treated a with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor alone (n=71), which was a statistically significant extension in median OS of 8.2 months (P=0.02). However, patients randomized to receive Optune Lua and docetaxel (n=75) had a median OS of 11.1 months compared to a median OS of 8.9 months in patients treated with docetaxel alone (n=75), which was not statistically significant. In addition, there was concern that given the current treatment paradigm for the 1L setting includes platinum based chemo + PD-(L)1 inhibitors and the LUNAR study only evaluated 2% of patients with prior PD-(L)1 inhibitor use, that the FDA may request additional data on patients who have previously progressed on PD-(L)1 inhibitors. In addition, there was question on whether the label would include docetaxel, given this arm was not statistically significant in LUNAR. We are surprised with the broad label though believe this is very positive news for Novocure given there are currently no approved SOC therapies in the 2L setting besides docetaxel. Therefore, we believe that physicians will be inclined to utilize Optune Lua in the 2L setting given it is a novel MoA, the first approved treatment for this setting, and Optune has a very benign safety profile. In addition, we believe the 2L NSCLC opportunity is potentially much larger than the commercial business in glioblastoma, which could lead to significant sales growth following 2025. For this reason, we are upgrading our rating to Buy from Neutral and are increasing our PT to $30 from $24."
For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on NovoCure Ltd. click here. For more ratings news on NovoCure Ltd. click here.
Shares of NovoCure Ltd. closed at $17.78 yesterday.
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