Kintara Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:KTRA) shares jumped Wednesday after analysts at Aegis Capital Corp reiterated their Buy rating on the company and upped the price target to $7 per share from $6 in a note to clients.
Aegis pointed to the recent launch of the GBM AGILE (Glioblastoma Adaptive Global Innovative Learning Environment) trial, which includes Kintara’s drug VAL-083, as a key catalyst.
“Kintara, an oncology-focused biotechnology company with multiple clinical-stage assets, has, in our view, made significant recent progress with VAL-083, the company's late-stage therapeutic for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM),” the firm wrote.
Kintara Therapeutics shares traded up more than 17% at $1.94 on Wednesday afternoon.
READ: Kintara Therapeutics gets price target bump, repeat Buy rating from Maxim after glioblastoma trial kicks off
Two other drug-makers will participate in the 800-patient study, also called the GCAR Adaptive Study, which will split patients into three arms. VAL-083 is the only therapy that will be evaluated in all three arms, the company announced.
“We think Kintara's VAL-083 represents an opportunity to benefit patients suffering from GBM, a highly lethal form of brain cancer,” the firm wrote.
“Given its unique mechanism of action, VAL-083 may be positioned to offer greater benefits to patients in the MGMT-unmethylated subset, which has historically responded poorly to standard of care. With that said, we think VAL-083 has multiple opportunities to demonstrate efficacy in conjunction with GCAR, including in newly diagnosed MGMT-methylated and unmethylated, and in patients with recurrent disease."
Aegis laid out a series of events to watch for going forward.
“We believe investors will be focused on the following catalysts,” Aegis wrote. “1, additional data from the ongoing phase 2 trial of VAL-083 at AACR (2Q21); 2, subsequent top-line results from the phase 2 trial (2Q21); (3) initial enrollment of patients in the lead-in study of REM-001 (2Q21); 4, top-line results from the CMBC lead-in study (4Q21); and 5 GCAR GBM AGILE registration study graduation from stage 1 to stage 2 (1Q22).”
VAL-083 is considered a first-in-class, DNA-targeting small molecule, mechanisms of action (MOA) in addendum, which is designed to cross the blood-brain barrier. It has demonstrated clinical activity against a range of cancers, including the central nervous system, ovarian, and other solid tumors in clinical trials sponsored by the US National Cancer Institute.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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