Analysts at Aegis Capital Corp rated Kintara Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:KTRA) a 'Buy,' while maintaining a $7 share target price on the company which develops new solid tumor cancer therapies.
The San Diego, California-based clinical stage drug development company closed its fiscal third quarter with cash and equivalents of about $15.7 million. In a note to clients, Aegis Capital analysts said that Kintara’s financial runway had been extended.
“The company stated that its available cash would be sufficient to fund operations through 2Q22 (formerly 4Q21), with warrant exercise and Adgero synergies making up the delta,” said Aegis Capital analyst Nathan Weinstein.
READ: Kintara Therapeutics ends fiscal 3Q with cash and cash equivalents of about $15.7M
In addition, the company noted that during the quarter ended March 31, 2021, it achieved a major milestone as it commenced patient recruitment for its VAL-083 arm of the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) AGILE registrational study sponsored by the Global Coalition for Adaptive Research (GCAR).
VAL-083 is currently the only therapeutic agent being evaluated in all three GBM patient subtypes — newly diagnosed methylated MGMT, newly diagnosed unmethylated MGMT, and recurrent.
“We see VAL-083 as having the potential to be a successor to TMZ in the treatment of GBM, predicated on the outcome of GCAR GBM AGILE, a landmark adaptive design registrational study, wherein VAL-083 is featured in three settings (newly diagnosed MGMT-methylated, MGMT unmethylated, and recurrent),” said Weinstein.
“Investors may also want to consider the fact that VAL-083 is being used in China currently, as a treatment for CML and lung cancer, which may suggest a commercially-viable safety/tolerability profile. We expect a key catalyst from AGILE to be the graduation of one or more arms circa 1Q:22.”
Meanwhile, Zacks Investment Research noted that Kintara is developing a pair of “well-researched therapies in oncology” with several characteristics that make the candidates particularly amenable to addressing GBM and Cutaneous Metastatic Breast Cancer (CMBC).
“For VAL-083, the ability to cross the blood brain barrier and overcome DNA-repair enzyme resistance combined with the agent’s affinity to be absorbed by cancer cells provides a mechanism of action that may provide superior safety and efficacy compared with the current standard of care,” said Zacks.
“In the case of REM-001, the targeted nature of the approach avoids systemic exposure and addresses many of the shortcomings of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for CMBC patients.”
Zacks said Kintara offers "exposure to two large oncology markets" and is developing two assets primed to enter pivotal studies.
“With a wealth of data available for VAL-083 and an unmet need in CMBC, we see Kintara as diversified and undervalued. We maintain our target price of $5.25 per share,” said Zacks.
“Our valuation assumes a 2025 regulatory approval and subsequent large pharma partner deal for commercialization of VAL-083 and a 2024 approval and deal follow ed by a launch of REM-001.”
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive