Biogen (BIIB) PT Raised to $367 at Leerink Partners
Leerink Partners analyst Geoffrey Porges raised his price target on Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) to $367.00 (from $360.00) but maintained an Market Perform following positive nusinersen data.
Porges commend, "This morning Biogen and Ionis (MP) announced that ENDEAR, a phase 3 study of nusinersen in the treatment of infant-onset (Type I) spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), met its primary pre-specified endpoints following an interim analysis. In a conference call following the press release, Biogen announced the company was exercising its development option with the payment of a $75mm license fee to Ionis and assuming all responsibility and costs associated with the further development, regulatory and commercialization of nusinersen – including plans of filing for regulatory approval in the US (an NDA) and EU “in the coming months”. The company indicated that the trends in the other efficacy analyses were also “trending positively” and that they would be filing with haste “for everything” including priority review and breakthrough designation. Today we are updating our BIIB model to reflect this disclosure, while revising several of our assumptions regarding the potential opportunity of nusinersen. Today’s news is positive and will provide some near-term tailwind for the stock following the company’s recent development struggles, including the failure of multiple sclerosis candidate opicinumab (anti-LINGO). Beyond nusinersen however, we see several near and mid-term risks for BIIB, including the replacement of CEO George Scangos, who announced his retirement during the company’s recent earnings call, the culmination of recent spate of senior leadership turnover. We are raising our price target from $360 to $367 to reflect the slight increase in expected revenues, but are maintaining our Market Perform rating."
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Shares of Biogen closed at $289.93 yesterday.