By Sam Boughedda
Morgan Stanley analysts named BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) a Catalyst Driven Idea in a note to clients Thursday.
The analysts, who have an Equal-weight rating and a $150 price target on the stock, explained that BioNTech's personalized cancer vaccine (PCV) is the catalyst, with early-stage data expected on April 16.
"We believe PCV has the best opportunity in the adjuvant setting (i.e., post tumor resection) as earlier stage cancers often have lower antigen heterogeneity and lower tumor burden that allows better T cell infiltration," wrote the analysts. "However, while mgt. has acknowledged the potential benefit of using PCV in the adjuvant setting (and has ongoing studies there) they also believe 1L advanced melanoma could be viewed as relatively early in disease progression."
The analysts explained BioNTech's Ph2 PCV study is a randomized, open-label trial assessing the efficacy and safety of PCV +pembrolizumab versus pembrolizumab alone in the treatment of naïve advanced melanoma.
The firm's base case "expectation is that the combo arm achieves a HR ~ 0.69 - 0.75 with a ~3 - 4 month benefit in mPFS and a p-value ≥ 0.1."