Immunic has caught the attention of market analysts with the release of positive data from the maintenance phase of its Phase 2b CALDOSE-1 trial of lead asset vidofludimus calcium (IMU-838) in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC).
The company on Wednesday said data from the maintenance phase of CALDOSE-1 showed a dose-linear increase in clinical remission as compared to the placebo at week 50.
Additionally, an exploratory statistical analysis confirmed the 30 mg dose of vidofludimus calcium to be statistically superior in achieving clinical remission at week 50, with a 33.7% absolute improvement over the placebo.
In their coverage of the company following the release of the data, analysts at Piper Sandler awarded the company an ‘Overweight’ rating and $28 price target, a significant upside from its current share price of about $1.45.
“Our $28/share price target is derived from a risk-adjusted net present value analysis (18% discount rate, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis approval in 2026 for both in the US and EU with $2.04 billion combined peak sales),” analysts wrote.
Analysts at Ladenburg Thalmann reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating and $15 price target, excluding IMU-935 or IMU-856 from their valuation which they said both represent potential upside to their projects.
On the new data, they noted: “Immunic is not currently planning to move the program into Phase 3 development without a partner though this data suggests options for additional inflammatory bowel disease indications. We are encouraged by the efficacy signal observed in this analysis and look forward to the next steps for the IMU-838 program in the GI space.”
Further, Wedbush analysts also repeated their ‘Outperform’ rating and $5 price target and SVB Securities analysts reiterated their ‘Market Perform’ rating.
“Overall, while we view the maintenance data in UC as encouraging, we continue to see vidofludimus calcium in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis as the primary fundamental value driver for IMUX shares,” SVB Securities analysts wrote.
“We look forward to the proof-of-concept data for IMU-856 later this quarter in celiac disease, though we continue to believe investors are likely to approach IMUX's early clinical pipeline as a ‘show-me story’ given the setbacks in PsO and induction UC trial.”
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