RBC Capital downgraded Aprea Therapeutics to Hold from Buy as the biopharma company said Monday that its Phase 3 trial of Eprenetapopt molecule in TP53 Mutant Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) treatment failed to meet its primary endpoint. Shares of Aprea Therapeutics (APRE) dropped almost 1% on Tuesday after plunging 78.1% yesterday.
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RBC Capital analyst Gregory Renza also slashed the stock’s price target from $40 to $10 (81.8% upside potential).
The analyst said, “While the company continues to proceed with other pipeline programs around eprenetapopt, we believe the news has an adverse read-through to the path forward and lowers our confidence in the potential of the molecule and the programs.”
Aprea announced that the “The trial did not meet the predefined primary endpoint of complete remission (CR) rate.” The analysis demonstrated that the CR rate was 53% higher “in the experimental arm receiving eprenetapopt with AZA [azacytidine] versus the control arm receiving AZA alone, but did not reach statistical significance.”
Aprea’s chief medical officer Dr. Eyal Attar said, “Though we are disappointed the topline results did not reach statistical significance, we continue to believe that eprenetapopt can offer clinical benefit to patients with TP53 mutant malignancies.” (See APRE stock analysis on TipRanks)
Meanwhile, the Street is currently in line with Renza’s outlook. The Hold analyst consensus is based on 4 Holds versus only 1 Buy. The average price target stands at $7.40 and implies upside potential of about 34.6% to current levels. Shares have tanked 88.1% on a year-to-date basis.
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