Last week, Neurocrine Biosciences (NASDAQ:NBIX) announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved Ingrezza for Huntington's disease, prompting analysts to raise their price targets for the stock.
The FDA approval was supported by data from two clinical studies conducted in collaboration with the Huntington Study Group (HSG).
Jefferies analysts raised the NBIX price target by $1 to $123 per share. They maintained a Buy rating on the stock.
The analysts told investors that what was surprising was "Ingrezza got a VMAT2 class BB warning for depression & suicidal ideation and behavior for the HD indication."
"Looking at mgmt commentary heading into approval, it looks this wasn't the base case for NBIX either," they wrote. "Overall, we model peak sales of $332M for Ingrezza in HD Chorea."
Oppenheimer raised the NBIX price target to $154 from $150, maintaining an Outperform rating. Analysts there stated that Ingrezza is "poised to accelerate with new indication."
"We're optimistic about the updated label, which highlights Ingrezza's competitive profile in HD chorea, including efficacy, safety, tolerability, dosing convenience and other differentiating features," the analysts wrote.